Six of us went on a tour of the U's recycling facility. Our host told us about the market for various materials, took us out on the sorting floor, and answered questions about why certain things can or cannot be recycled with others.
The Green Team is planning a trash pickup event around WBOB and the ECRC over the lunch hour on Earth Day
Thursday April 22
Noon to 1 PM
Meet at the picnic tables outside the WBOB cafeteria
Bring a pair of work gloves (extras will be available)
We will provide bags
Rain date: Tuesday 4/27
3rd and 4th floor main kitchens have buckets of coffee grounds for you to add to your home compost. Stop in, pick one up and bring the bucket back the next day.
EpiHelp recycles one type of cartridge
Following is an e-mail exchange inquiring about how to dispose of valuable assets that are no longer of use to Epi.
Recycling at the U is 25 years old!
Read about how recycling at the U works:
www.facm.umn.edu/Sites/FM_News/News%20Archive/2009/recycling_operation_03092009.html
Read about the U's leadership over the past quarter century:
www1.umn.edu/twincities/faculty-staff/features/UR_CONTENT_108089.html
Have an old computer, printer or digital camera to get rid of? HP will buy back reusable equipment and offers FREE recycling for most HP and Compaq electronics. Other brands can be recycled for a nominal fee. Visit them at https://h20212.www2.hp.com/recycle/
measurements
One epidemiologist's trash is another epidemiologist's treasure. Nevertheless, a few rules...
- books, CD's movies are great. They can be borrowed and returned over and over again.
- it should be something someone might want
- if it sits around too long it will be donated or tossed
Removing cubicle (and office) garbage bins and putting a quad recycling setup in each hall would
- encourage recycling instead of trashing
- save the cleaning crew effort
- reduce plastic bags used (these are thrown away too)
- allow reduced evening lighting (if the cleaning crew doesn't need to enter each cubicle)
As studies end they may have ite,s such as laptops, gift cards, kitchen ware, etc.
A central inventory for coordinators would cut down on future ordering expenses.
If the cafeteria started composting then we could collect compost and add it to their pile.
EpiHelp collects used printer cartridges and receives a rebate from the recycler. Mark will label project printers so each project knows to save old cartridges.
Collect flourescents and CFL's (compact flourescents) at WBOB, along with batteries.
Current computers are disposable. If any part ages or fails the entire computer is tossed out. If there were a market for them then someone would produce modular computers with plug-in components. When the processor got old and slow it could be unplugged and replaced. When the hard drive got full another one could be added. There is no need to replace the shell, drives, fan, power supply and connections when one component is broken.
If several universities or state governments banded together and ordered a product down the line then the suppliers would respond.
Coffee pots have been removed from one kitchen per floor as of May 21, 2008
How do electric hand dryers compare to paper and cloth towels?
Energy use is similar, but the costs of refilling and disposing of waste make electric preferred. As discussed previously, this should be combined with reversing the door hinges so that touching the handle is not required.
Emergency (high-volume):
Non-emergency, workweek:
Record in maintenance log at front desk
Non-emergency, weekend: