Recycling at Holy Cross
Holy Cross has a mature recycling program that has been in place since the early 1990’s. It is run by the Building Services group of Physical Plant. More than 150 tons of recycled material has been processed and reclaimed during the past year. And that does not include construction debris recycled for construction projects.
Recycling is an excellent way to reuse materials to avoid filling landfills and wastefully using valuable natural resources. We hope the campus community joins in our effort to take things even a step further by minimizing — or altogether avoiding — the use of materials in the first place.
For example:
• Use tap or filtered water before opting for a water bottle
• Purchase products with minimal or no packaging
• Use a coffee mug instead of paper cups
• Do not print documents to read them when they are available on your computer screen
• Print double-sided when possible
There are many other ways to prevent the use of natural resources and the only limit is your imagination.
All of the recycling material from Holy Cross is collected and transported to a small location in the warehouse for sorting and packaging by the Building Services personnel. It is collected in the blue bins spread throughout campus, dumped into clear bags and taken to the warehouse. The materials are picked up for recycling by the IRN - The Recycling Network.
A unique feature of the Holy Cross recycling program is that you are allowed to mix recycling materials in the small blue containers located in offices and throughout campus. One challenging aspect to maximize recycling is to keep materials from getting contaminated. For example, all recycling materials are allowed in the single containers because they are separated at the warehouse on campus. However, if a can of soda is not completely empty and it contaminates the paper in the bin then the entire load is rejected by the recycling firm. This can easily be avoided by rinsing containers or making sure they are completely empty.
Please contact Building Services at x2454 if you would like to request recycling bins for your department and they will try to help you to develop a specific program for your area.