In a referendum on 5th of March, 2003, the student body voted for a $2-per-semester fee to fund renewable energy projects and technologies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They agreed on implementing this $2-per-semester fee hike in the Fall-2004 session. The accumulated funds could be used as the seed money for the wind turbine project.
Cardboard recycling appears to have started in July 1988