This project will improve the recycling process in buildings around campus by encouraging sustainable actions and improving the layout of waste and recycling bins within these buildings. Facilities & Services collaborated with ISTC to make an “Indoor Solid Waste and Recycling Collection Assessment”. This assessment determined that the type and layout of collection containers in buildings across campus should be standardized. An update would enable them to be co-located and allow for greater infrastructure consistency. This will also help with other recommendations ISTC made, such as creating a container placement guide for Building Service Worker (BSW) staff, updating signage on collection bins, and improving recycling participation while decreasing contamination.

In FY 2019, Facilities & Services started with an initial purchase of 113 three-part bins – landfill, paper, bottles and cans – and installed them within buildings on the Main Quad. 45 more bins were purchased in FY 2020, 23 more in FY 2021, 16 in FY 2022, 28 in FY 2023, 9 in FY 2024, and 34 in FY 2025 (2 of which were fabricated in-house through the F&S Mill Shop). All of these bins have been used to retrofit existing buildings on campus.

In FY 2024, the three-part bins were integrated as an official building standard. To date, the Campus Instructional Facility (16 bins), Siebel Center for Design (3 bins), and Wymer Hall (14 bins) have included bin purchases in their build.

Illini Union has been an avid champion in integrating the new standard: in FY 2018 the Union purchased an initial 7 three-part bins to be placed outdoors, and 8 more indoors. Through Student Sustainability Committee funding awarded in FY 2021, 9 more indoor three-part bins were added (with shadow boxes).

As of the end of FY 2025, 325 standardized bins can be found across campus buildings, with investment totalling just shy of $950,000.