Recycling from covid-19 test sites at UIUC
The funnels, straws, and the test tubes all get incinerated, as hazardous waste. The gloves and styrofoam get recycled by Facilities & Services.
The funnels, straws, and the test tubes all get incinerated, as hazardous waste. The gloves and styrofoam get recycled by Facilities & Services.
F&S, iSEE, Urbana, Champaign, and Champaign County representatives met with Joe Hooker (community member) and a representative from Ripple Glass. We discussed the benefits of glass recycling, the challenges, and the potential for growing our overall glass recycling strategy for this community and county.
Krannert Art Museum started participating in the glove recycling program in the fall of 2017. The location was added to the map of participating locations on Feb. 4, 2018.
Morgan Johnston and Marya Ryan met with Nick Osborne at the Wounded Vets’ Center on March 23 to discuss glass recycling. Anna Barnes designed a glass recycling label for use inside the Center. Ryan is following up with CRI to discuss costs, pickup schedules, and other information. Once-per-week pickup of a 96-gallon toter service is targeted to start by mid-to-late August, when new residents move into the Center. As of mid-July, a service agreement with CRI is still to be formalized and is expected in late July.
The Veterinary Diagnostic Lab (VDL) at the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) functions similar to a human medical institution, in that it generates waste that is not recyclable due to biosafety considerations. This is an unfortunate waste. This project seeks to begin recycling some of VDL’s plastics. This project’s goal is to capture the waste from their work that involves single use sterile pipette tip boxes, which are safe to be recycled.
The SSC funding for Zero Waste Coordination ($64,862) covers four different recycling efforts.
1) Campus-wide infrastructure, $29,750: Expanding the “Dual bins on the Quad” to north of Green and eastward to Goodwin Avenue, in collaboration with F&S Superintendent of Grounds Ryan Welch. Ryan’s Grounds workers are mapping the existing bins, as a first step. All of this funding is for the physical infrastructure (bins and lids, etc.).
The Veterinary Diagnostic Lab (VDL) at the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) functions similar to a human medical institution, in that it generates waste that is not recyclable due to biosafety considerations. This is an unfortunate waste. This project seeks to begin recycling some of VDL’s plastics. This project’s goal is to capture the waste from their work that involves single use sterile pipette tip boxes, which are safe to be recycled.
Today recycling containers were placed on the trash bin at Ikenberry Commons. The purpose is to collect and recycle all the nitrile gloves used by food service employees. The weight of the gloves will be recorded to measure environmental impact.
The University of Wisconsin in Madison has a program to reduce polystyrene waste. They reached out to Ben McCall to get a letter of support. Meanwhile, Bart Bartels, Seth Rients, and Shantanu Pai suggested we could start a similar program now, rather than wait to know if Wisconsin's funding comes through. Ben suggested the following questions to consider as a starting point.