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.

Facilities & Services will start by purchasing 113 three-part bins – landfill, paper, bottles and cans – and installing them within buildings on the Main Quad. A full building of new collection containers will be installed for the Foreign Languages Building and Natural History Building. Other buildings on the Main Quad will start with updating their first floor collection containers to the new bins. This bin style will be incorporated into the Facility Standards, so future campus buildings will include them in the initial construction costs.