Things are getting greener around the School of Medicine, but there is no paint or new landscaping involved.
The school kicked off a comprehensive recycling effort last month, distributing about 300 containers throughout its buildings for “commingled” recyclables, including aluminum, tin, plastics, glass, steel, cardboard and other materials (see box). The blue containers were placed in hallways near the existing paper recycling bins or near elevators.
• Aluminum cans, trays and foil (empty and rinsed)
• Steel cans and tin (empty and rinsed)
• Soda, water and flavored-beverage bottles (empty and rinsed)
• Yogurt cups (empty and rinsed)
• Glass bottles and jars, clear, brown and green (empty and rinsed)
Unacceptable items:
• Plastic bags from a grocery or department store
• Styrofoam
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Acceptable items for the commingled containers: • Aluminum cans, trays and foil (empty and rinsed) Unacceptable items: • Plastic bags from a grocery or department store |
The School of Medicine has been recycling various items for several years, including office paper, newspaper and shredded paper, mercury, lead, fluorescent light bulbs and some chemicals.
But interest from various campus groups led to the expanded program, said Michael Koch, environmental manager at the School of Medicine.
“Along with interest expressed by students, faculty and staff, this program goes along with the Chancellor’s initiative to decrease the University’s environmental footprint,” Koch said. “The suc-cess of this program depends on everyone who works, learns or visits here. If everyone does their part by reducing, reusing and recycling, we can cut our solid waste by 50 percent to 60 percent.”
Under a new contract with a local recycling vendor, the Facilities Management Department (FMD) will transport recyclable waste from within the buildings to outdoor containers. The vendor, BJ Partnership, will then collect the materials weekly, properly dispose of the waste through recycling partners and report to the School of Medicine how much has been recycled and kept out of area landfills. The vendor will also remove old shipping pallets, which will be recycled when possible or processed as decorative mulch.
BJ Partnership has a similar recycling contract with the Danforth Campus.
Gregg Evans, director of Support Services at the School of Medicine, said the school is also teaming with Barnes-Jewish Hospital to recycle cardboard by sharing the hospital’s cardboard compactor. In addition, the School of Medicine has placed a large bin in the hospital’s main vending area to collect plastic recyclables such as soda or water bottles.
The expanded program should boost the University’s ranking in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s RecycleMania competition, which pits U.S. college and university recycling programs against one another to see which has the highest recycling rate and which can collect the most recyclables and produce the least amount of trash per capita. In 2006, the University ranked ninth nationwide, but Evans and Koch said the goal is to move up.
Evans and Koch said the expanded recycling program is one of many steps the medical school is taking to lessen its impact on the environment. For instance, under a new agreement with the University’s trash hauler, the trash compactors now have gauges that indicate when they are full and ready to be emptied, saving trips to empty the compactors when they are only partially full. This saves unnecessary hauling and cuts down on vehicle mileage, further reducing unnecessary emissions.
In addition, since 1992, the School of Medicine has saved $26 million in energy costs by replacing and upgrading old systems, including replacing boilers, chillers and other production equipment with more efficient and reliable models, and updating heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems in several buildings.
Evans said FMD’s Custodial Services also is making changes by using more environmentally friendly cleaning products, and plans to use a different kind of wet mop that doesn’t take as much water to launder or chemicals to clean.
The school is also collecting laboratory supplies and equipment for recycling, including mercury-based thermometers and pipette tips. Koch said since November 2005, when the pipette tips recycling program began, the effort has kept nine tons of discarded pipette tips out of landfills.
“Recycling is not a cost savings, it’s an expense, but it’s the right thing to do,” Evans said. “The success of this program starts at each employee’s desk.”