Recycling Procedures and Team Responsibilities

Several teams of volunteers accomplish the Department's recycling, which is done on a weekly basis. Each team consists of four people who are assigned a different floor of the building. The volunteers spend only about 15-20 minutes once very several weeks to perform their duties.  Recycling duties should be completed by the Friday of the assigned week.  If this is not possible, please contact Chester Stephen to make other arrangements.
 

WHICH BINS INSIDE SITTERSON HALL DOES THE RECYCLING TEAM EMPTY?

Except for Level 0, which has fewer offices, all floors of Sitterson have TWO recycling centers with blue, green and yellow stacked recycling bins. On most floors, one site is located beside the elevator, where the hand truck for that floor is stored. Each floor's other site is located toward the other side of the building from the elevator. Contents of the stacked bins are as follows:

• Dark Blue Bins: plastics, glass, aluminum cans
• Yellow Bins: newsprint
• Green Bins: glossy paper

Additionally, there are white wooden boxes (for glass) in the MSL conference room that need to be picked up by the second floor recycling team.

Orange Recycling is under contract with UNC to pick up certain recyclables. In Sitterson Hall, they pick up all white paper and fiber paper bins as well as aluminum can bins, either their own cardboard barrels (with the round holes in the lid), or our Department's green bins with can crusher lids. The Department Recycling Team does not pick up any of these bins.  

INSTRUCTIONS FOR RECYCLING THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MATERIAL:

Use the hand truck to move the bins from the floor for which you are assigned to do the recycling, and take them down to the recycling bins located outside the rear entrance of Sitterson.  (Make sure to position the bins with the lid opening facing away from you as you walk and with the green bin on the bottom for balancing purposes.) The recycling center outside the rear entrance of Sitterson has blue receptacles for each type of material we place in the building's stacked bins.

• ALUMINUM CANS -- Put in recycling bins labeled "Aluminum Cans."
• PLASTIC BOTTLES -- Plastic milk, soft drink, and water bottles that are labeled #1 or #2 may be recycled in the blue bin labeled "Plastics." Be sure to remove all bottle tops, and flatten the bottles.
• GLASS BOTTLES/JARS -- (Don't forget the white wooden boxes in the MSL conference room, 2nd floor.) Carefully sort according to glass color (clear, green or blue, and brown) and place in the appropriate bins outside the building. Blue and green glass do get recycled together (in the "green glass" bin). **Glass is the easiest material to contaminate when improperly sorted and the hardest to "decontaminate" during processing.** Please take the time to sort the glass by color. Be sure to remove all bottle and jar tops.
• NEWSPAPERS -- Deposit into the recycling bins labeled "Newspaper" behind Sitterson. Newspapers should be clean and dry. Remove any plastic bags or rubber bands from around newspaper.
• GLOSSY PAPER, MAGAZINES, CATALOGS -- It is possible to recycle any glossy paper, such as magazines and catalogs, as well as glossy flyers and glossy junk mail inserts. In other words, the glossy paper doesn't have to be bound as a magazine or catalog. Please remove glossy magazines from plastic bags or paper wrappers. You must also be careful that the magazine or catalog is all glossy (some are deceiving, with glossy covers and non-glossy interior pages).
• CORRUGATED CARDBOARD -- Corrugated cardboard boxes are usually placed somewhere near the recycling bins on each floor, so please look carefully and take them when you are doing the department's recycling. Break them down and place them in the bin outside the 0 level entrance. Please do NOT recycle pizza boxes or other boxes contaminated with food.

 
You don't have to go far to empty recycling materials into these bins conveniently located outside the 0 level entrance to Sitterson Hall.  Corrugated cardboard recycling is located just to the right of the blue bins.