the UW Sustainability blog
Guest post by Cailin Winston
Imagine living in a village where computer monitors and circuit boards line the streets, where the air creates a stinging sensation in your eyes and nose, where you dare not eat the rice that you grow because it is likely to be contaminated with heavy metals and toxins. This is Guiyu, China, one of the largest informal recycling operations for electronic waste in the world.
Guest submission by Adam Fehn, UW Recycling Program Coordinator
Once you become familiar with being part of a campus community that's renowned for its sustainability practices, it can be hard to believe that a formal recycling program at University of Washington was established only 26 years ago. Thanks to several key student-lead initiatives, UW Recycling eventually grew to become a team of 14 administrative and operations members that support the entire campus every day.
2 min. to read
There are plenty of common questions that come up when talking to new Huskies on the Seattle campus. UW Recycling is here to provide some answers below:
The UW Athletics green team needs volunteers to be a part of the football game day sustainability team. Volunteers will play a major role in helping us reach our waste diversion goal of 80% this season. As a volunteer, you will engage with fans to encourage sustainable practices in the stadium and in the tailgate areas. After halftime, you are welcome to stay and watch the remainder of the game.
Get a clean start to the new school year with the Fall Husky Neighborhood Cleanup. Students on north campus can drop off unwanted items to be donated, recycled or disposed for for free on August 31, and September 25 and 26.
As a result of UW Recycling’s two annual waste diversion events — SCRAM (Students Cleanup, Recycle and Moveout) and Husky Neighborhood Cleanup (HNC) — the University of Washington donated a combined total of 28.4 tons of reusable items to local charities and non-profit organizations.
It's almost the end of the year, and for many students that also means it's almost time to move. If there's items you don't have room for as you pack up, don't just throw them away - UW Recycling has several ways to give unwanted itmes to someone else who could use them.
The University of Washington’s Seattle campus won the 2017 PAC-12 Grand Champion award during RecycleMania, a national collegiate waste diversion tournament. The 786 metric tons of CO2 that UW kept out of the landfill is equivalent to the total amount of energy consumption of 68 households, or removing 154 cars off the road.
The student organization EcoReps supported UW Recycling’s efforts in generating event awareness on campus this year.
Is your office getting ready for spring cleaning? There are plenty of ways to ensure that your annual cleanup is both efficient and sustainable! With Earth Day coming up, use the following tips from UW Recycling to properly dispose of your used office supplies.
The two-month RecycleMania competition finished with the end of March, but the numbers are still being tallied. So far, the results are in through the first six weeks of the competition, and the University of Washington is holding a big lead among all Pac-12 schools. The Seattle campus is pacing the conference, but UW Bothell has been doing even better in terms of overall recycling rate.