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University administrators, staff, faculty, and students have begun a recycling program for plastic bottles. Bins are located outside Macbride Hall and the Lindquist Center.
Students run the program, entirely on a volunteer basis. The Environmental Coalition is coordinating the collection schedule. Student volunteers empty the individual bins three times a week and transport the bottles to a central bin for collection by Facilities Service Group.
“The recycling is going better than expected,” says Nick Klenske, former president of UI Student Government, who ran on a platform that included the recycling project. “The volunteers are excellent and we’ve had no problems. I don’t have any hard numbers, but talking to the volunteers, they say that each bin is usually close to being full every other day.”
The project opened in January after nearly two years of letter-writing, petitions, rallies, meetings, and planning, Klenske says.
“The long-term goal is to have recycling for paper and plastic available in all academic buildings and the residence halls,” he says.