Thursday, September 13, 2007
The Environmental Stewardship Program at the University of Kansas is working on new ways to reduce the waste on campus in addition to operating recycling services. Its new program, Surplus Property Recycling program, will receive excess office furniture from University buildings and sell it to any department or student organization on campus at a substantially reduced price.
Celeste Hoins, administrative manager of ESP, and other employees have planned the Surplus Property Recycling program since June. Although she has not yet started the program, Hoins said that a dozen University departments have shown interest in the new recycling system. Hoins accepted the surplus furniture from University departments this summer. The furniture, including desks and chairs, already fills the 2,500 square-feet warehouse on West Campus.
“It’s been pretty successful,” Hoins said. “A lot of people are excited about it and want to know more.”
Hoins said KU Recycling used to collect surplus furniture and donate it to nonprofit organizations from 2001 to 2004 until it lost the space for storage. Compared to the old program, the new system allows more storage space and delivery services for the surplus furniture. The program is still bound by state rules. ESP had not received the official approval of Surplus Property Recycling yet, but Hoins said the program would start this semester. She said ESP’s coordination would benefit both providers and receivers of the furniture on campus.
“They would be able to free up the space in the office immediately,” Hoins said. “As far as resell on campus, we are cheap. People can get really nice stuff for their offices and departments,” she said.
ESP’s projects are not limited to the Surplus Property Recycling program. The grants from previous years allowed ESP to purchase equipment, including a bailing machine, and expand the recycling service on campus.
Hoins said the new bailer could recycle material faster. The KU Recycling team, thanks to the equipment’s efficiency, can put more containers on campus and increase some of the container sizes so that the team can collect more material with large volume such as cardboard. Hoins expected the amount of recycling would keep increasing this year following the growth of the last year.
“I’m hopeful that we will be able to really promote ourselves this semester,” Hoins said.
Margaret Tran, Derby sophomore, has taken advantage of the KU recycling service.
She uses it almost everyday both on campus and at her residence hall. “They do a good job recovering magazines, aluminum cans, plastics,” Tran said. However, she said it would be better if she had more recycle bins for office papers and newspapers.
Hoins said she would like to partner with environmental organizations on campus to promote recycling and increase the supply of recycling containers in campus buildings and residence halls.
Hoins said she would also like to raise recycling awareness among students who live off campus. She is planning to provide recycling trailers around the parking lots of Memorial Stadium or the Student Recreation and Fitness Center at least once a month so that students have easy access to the recycling service.
“The visibility of our containers encouraged recycling,” Hoins said. “It’s a habit. Once you start recycling, then you feel weird throwing a plastic bottle in a trash.”
— Edited by Kaitlyn Syring
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