Recycling & Waste

Kylie Cherneskie '21 and Jake Twill '20 help with Freshman Move-In

Recycling & Waste

We’re all about reducing our footprint - or should we say, “Bear Print”

Recycling

Here at Ursinus, we can recycle plastics #1-7, glass, aluminum, cardboard, and paper. Check out the Frequently Asked Questions for some more helpful guidance!

Each building on campus has recycling bins. In residence halls, these are tall blue bins or green square bins. At any time, you can contact Facilities and ask for a personal bin to keep in your room that you can empty into a nearby communal recycling bin, or contact us for help locating a bin or getting a new one for your residence.

Trash

In all buildings on campus, including Main Street houses, trash bins are grey. Our waste is picked up by our waste hauler, incinerated, and the energy generated is used for electricity.

How We’re Reducing Waste

We work to reduce waste on a number of fronts, including purchasing less and reducing food waste. Two of our favorite ways to keep items from being trashed are our Sustainable Move-In and Sustainable Move-Out programs!

Frequently Asked Questions about Recycling and Waste

What is considered recyclable is highly dependent on what kind of materials the local recycling center can sort through. So, what can be placed in the recycling bin and processed by one recycling center, may be different than what another recycling center can accept. For example: Some companies cannot take certain materials like plastic bags (in fact, most recycling centers cannot take flexible plastic packaging), but at Ursinus, our local recycling center is able to handle that material.

A company comes to haul away our trash. The trash is then transported to a waste to energy plant that is located about 40 minutes away from campus. The waste to energy incinerates the trash. The heat that is created becomes steam, which is used to turn a turbine and generate electricity.

These items should be placed in the trash bin. Any pizza boxes that have grease (or cheese) stains on them will not be recycled at the local recycling center. A clean, non-stained pizza box can be recycled. (It is rare that a used pizza box will not have grease stains on it.) For paper cups and similar take out items, they usually have a wax-like coating on them so that the food does not leach/leak through the paper. This coating makes it difficult for the paper item to be recycled into another material.

Recycling & Waste

Recycling

Trash

How We’re Reducing Waste

Frequently Asked Questions about Recycling and Waste

I am uncertain about what is recyclable here and what is not. Is there any guidance I can have for this?

The items I can put in the recycle binat Ursinus isdifferent from my home, or from a friend who goes to another school. Why?

Do the items placed in the recycling bins really get recycled?

Where does our trash go after it leaves campus?

Where does our recycling go after it leaves campus?

Who hauls our trash and recycling away?

Why can’t I put a used pizza box, or a paper cup in the recycling since these are just paper and cardboard, right?