June 17, 2007
Paper, glass, metal and plastic items usually discarded on all
three St. John’s city campuses will now get a second life, thanks
to an expanded recycling program recently implemented by the Office
of Facilities. This expansion of an existing “mini” program
involving only the Queens’ Residence Halls was launched several
weeks ago to include the entire Queens campus plus the Staten
Island and Manhattan campuses to create a single, unified system
for the entire University.
Recycling bins are now located in all campus buildings as well
as in outdoor areas, alongside existing waste receptacles. All
recyclable materials will be collected by the New York City
Department of Sanitation (DSNY), according to Facilities Manager
William Thomas.
The recycling initiative helps the University in several ways,
Thomas explains, “perhaps most importantly, by creating a culture
of environmental awareness among faculty, students, staff and
administration, as well as by being a good neighbor to the local
community.” In addition, he says, implementation of the campus-wide
recycling program will ensure the University’s compliance with New
York City laws, and will reduce costs related to waste
disposal.
What’s eligible for
recycling?
All mixed paper is eligible for recycling. This includes white
paper (even with color ink or lined); colored paper; envelopes
(even with windows); magazines/catalogs/glossy paper; newspapers;
phone books; soft-cover books; holiday wrapping paper, post-its,
paperboard (i.e.: cereal boxes and the back of legal pads), paper
bags, manila folders; adding machine tape; and any other clean, dry
paper items.
All corrugated cardboard is also recyclable, but boxes should be
placed beside paper recycling bins rather than in them to
facilitate removal. Certain items which are not eligible for
recycling include Tyvek envelopes, sheets of labels, soiled paper
products and coated-paper products.
The Sanitation Department accepts only plastic bottles and jugs
imprinted with #1 or #2 in the recycling triangle on the
container’s bottom. A good rule of thumb, Thomas advises, is
that only containers with necks smaller in circumference than their
bodies are eligible for recycling. Yogurt cups, butter tubs,
plastic bags (even with #2 coding), and other similar items are not
included in the DSNY program, as the different resins used to
manufacture these plastics are considered contaminants for
recycling #1 and #2 items.
Metal soup cans, empty aerosol cans, soda cans, aluminum-foil
wrap and trays, and other household metals (wire hangers, pots,
pans, etc.) are all included in the recycling program. These
items should be placed in recycling bins designated for glass,
metal, plastic and cartons. DSNY also accepts bulk metal for
recycling, such as metal filing cabinets, washing machines, metal
futon frames, box springs, water heaters, and certain small
appliances. Please contact Mr. Thomas if you have any questions
about these larger items.
Where does it all end up?
DSNY has contracts with several local paper processors, as well as
with the Visy paper mill on Staten Island. Truckloads of
recyclable fiber (mixed paper and cardboard) are dumped at the dry
transfer stations of the local processors, who then sort the paper
by grades, bale it, and sell it to local or overseas markets to be
recycled into new paper products. Paper is sent to Visy via
barge, where it is processed onsite and made into linerboard for
corrugated cardboard boxes.
All glass, metals, and plastics collected by DSNY are taken to
Sims Group USA, which processes the items, sorting them by category
and baling them for further processing elsewhere.
Benefits Make It Worthwhile
The benefits and associated saving of recycling different
materials are enormous. Here are some general facts about paper and
other recyclables to consider.
Recycling one ton of white paper saves
- 17 30-foot trees
- 7,000 gallons of water
- 41,000 Kilowatt-Hours (KWH) of electricity
- 3 cubic yards of landfill space
- 463 gallons of oil
- and eliminates 60 pounds of pollution from the air
as compared to resources required to manufacture one ton of
white paper from virgin pulp. In addition, five times as many
jobs are created to manufacture recycled paper versus that produced
from virgin stock.
Recycling One Ton of Glass saves
- 1,330 pounds of sand
- 433 pounds of soda ash
- 433 pounds of limestone
- 151 pounds of feldspar
- 9 gallons of oil
and requires only 25 percent of the energy needed to make glass
with virgin materials.
Did you know that
- Every Sunday, nearly 90 percent of the recyclable newspapers in
the U.S. are thrown away. That’s the equivalent to dumping
500,000 trees into a landfill every week.
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for
three hours or a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.
- It takes the same amount of energy to produce 20 recycled
aluminum cans as it does to produce one new can.
- Recycling aluminum creates 97 percent less water pollution than
producing new metal from ore.
- Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild the entire U.S.
commercial air fleet every three months.
- Recycling one ton of plastic saves 84 percent of the energy
required to make PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles from raw
materials.
- Plastic bottles can take over 1,000 years to decompose
- Glass can be recycled again and again with no loss in quality
or purity.
It’s simple: Recycle today, so you can enjoy tomorrow.