About Us: Recycling or Waste Management

Recycling

MSU’s recycling program began in response to a 1988 student petition to the Board of Trustees, resulting in an administrative task force charged with developing a comprehensive plan for waste reduction. With the assistance of the State of Michigan grant funds, an office paper recycling program was implemented.

The Office of Recycling and Waste Reduction (ORWR) was established in 1990 by the University in recognition of the need to participate in finding responsible solutions to solid waste problems. Its mission was to implement a campus-wide, waste management strategy by providing all University areas with information and resources to help minimize waste.

The first collection containers were distributed in June 1991 for white office paper. Phone directories, catalogs and magazines, bound books, and miscellaneous paper products were then added to the list of collected recyclables.

In 1999, the Office of Recycling and Waste Management (ORWM) was formed when trash collection, originally housed within the Grounds Department of the Campus Park and Planning Division, and recycling services merged into the Physical Plant to provide a refuse and recycling service for Michigan State University.

In January 2008, the MSU Board of Trustees authorized a new facility to be built west of Farm Lane in the service district. The new facility would house the newly named MSU Recycling (formally the Office of Recycling and Waste Managment), MSU Surplus Store and MSU Surplus Storage Solutions. The 74,000 square foot, $13.3 million facility would have an estimated 12 year payback. The money used to construct the building would not use general fund dollars; Surplus Store, Storage, and Recycling would be financially responsible.

Now open, the new facility houses Recycling, Surplus Store, Surplus Storage Solutions, and Waste Management. The building also includes an education center; compost and metal scrap bunkers; a truck scale and space for roll-off and semi-trailer storage containers. The facility has been submitted for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification; some green features of the building include: rainwater collection tanks on the roof of the building that will provide toilet water; rooftop photovoltaic solar panels that will produce 10 percent of the electricity for the building; broad use of day lighting throughout the facility through large number of windows; motion sensors to control lights within high-traffic areas; low-flow fixtures in restrooms; and recycled green-glass counter tops.

The MSU Surplus Store & Recycling Center will help achieve MSU’s clear goals to reduce energy use by 15%, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15%, and reduce landfill waste by 30% by 2015.

In the past, MSU Recycling acted as a broker for recyclable material by shipping the materials loose to processors. Now, large quantities of material can be sorted and baled at the Material Recovery Facility (MRF), which allows the recyclables to be sold at a higher price to processors, generating more money for MSU.

MSU Recycling is working in tandem with MSU Surplus Store towards to the move from dependence on solid waste disposal to programs in waste reduction, reuse, and recycling to help MSU use resources more efficiently; simultaneously reducing the volume, cost, and environmental impacts of the university's waste.

Waste Management

The Waste Management team currently has several routes to collect both refuse and recycling. Each route is set up based on the volumes being collected, and each day the drivers make anywhere from 25 to 75 stops. They haul trash to the Granger landfill and deliver recyclables to the MSU Material Recover Facility, Freidland Recycling, MSU Farms Compost Facility, MSU Landscape Services “Chipper Pile,” or MSU Power Plant.
Many of the campus residential halls have large roll-off compactors that are used to recycle cardboard, plastic, and tin cans from the Residential Hospitality Services Division.
Waste Management is a big supporter of Be Spartan Green, MSU's environmental stewardship initiative, which encourages people to not only recycle, but also reduce their waste, reuse, rethink, re-educate, research, and redesign.
The current processing center mainly collects materials from campus, but also has a new 24-hour public drop-off area on-site.

Mission
By continuously moving from reliance on solid waste disposal to programs in waste reduction, reuse, recycling and recycled product procurement, we contribute to a comprehensive, campus-wide waste reduction strategy which helps MSU use resources more efficiently; simultaneously reducing the volume, cost, and environmental impacts of the university's waste.