Trash? Recycling? It's All in the Hall!

New recycling mandate from the City of Portland:

75% diversion by 2015!

"In an effort to make our community more sustainable, Portland City Council recently adopted an aggressive, but attainable new goal to reach a 75 percent recycling rate by 2015. Portland businesses and government agencies now recycle 63 percent of all waste produced—a commendable rate that is envied by cities around the nation—yet each year 100,000 tons of recyclable paper, bottles and cans are sent to our landfills. That’s 20 tons of recycling headed to the landfill every 30 minutes of a business day!"    

-Pete Chism, Recycle at Work

In fact, the recycling rate for PSU is less than 50%.  We have a long way to go to reach 75% diversion by 2015.  One of the best management practices to help people recycle smarter is to always pair trash with recycling.  This thinking has informed PSU's latest effort in the ongoing process of reducing campus waste -

The Bin Consolidation Project

Since a recycling bin must be paired with every trash can, and placing a recycling bin in every classroom is unfeasible, trash cans are now migrating out of classrooms to convenient, centralized stations.  In other words:

It's All in the Hall

Your understanding is appreciated.  Please spread the word.

Thanks for helping Portland State strive for sustainability!