Brookhaven Courier

Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Chris Vivero Gary Hodge, building operations supervisor, disposes of phone books in a recycle bin located outside his office.

Final in a series



Jim Dwyer, director of facilities management, said Brookhaven College recycles an estimated 40-50 percent of waste products.

The Green Team, a faculty and staff organization that seeks to find ways to recycle, along with facilities maintains the recycling program at Brookhaven.

Dwyer said most of the trash materials are paper, and if more students used recycling zones on campus, Brookhaven could possibly increase the amount of recycled materials to 70 percent.

Professors can request recycling bins for their offices or classrooms to recycle paper, but they are responsible for taking and dumping the bin into the larger garbage totes located around campus, Dwyer said.

He said he would like to have a program to recycle materials such as aluminum cans and plastics, but it is an expensive effort. He suggested, at a recent Green Team meeting, that a student organization on campus should volunteer and support this program.

The students would have to clean the containers then crush them before sending them to a recycling plant. Facilities would provide the area and materials needed to do this and also have a contractor pick up the recycled materials.

In turn, the organization would keep all proceeds for their club or organization.

"If we can get participation from the divisions, departments and students, instead of not thinking about it, we can recover a great deal," Dwyer said.

He said about two years ago half of the carpet on campus was replaced and in the near future Brookhaven will be replacing the other half.

"That carpet that we remove does not go to a landfill; it goes back to the factory and is shredded and recycled to be used again," Dwyer said. "We don't buy anything but recycled carpet."

Dwyer said buying recycled carpet costs more but is environmentally friendly.

Everything that comes in through receiving that can be recycled by facilities is recycled.

With many projects underway at Brookhaven, facilities is trying to recycle whenever possible. Michael Trubisky, building maintenance supervisor, said while building the new Subway, old materials left over from the cafeteria will be recycled.

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