Bin there, recycled that

As students continue to head home for the summer, the trash they've left behind are becoming treasures for the needy. The Student Move-Out Recycling Program is well into its ninth year at UCF; focusing on recycling items beyond the trash can.

Twice annually during move-out week, the staff at Housekeeping & Recycling Services places boxes in the hallways of student dorms. Students are encouraged to donate unneeded items in the containers. The contents are evaluated before being taken to the Bithlo/Christmas Neighborhood Center for Families.

Don Atkinson, senior superintendent of solid waste, explains how Facilities Operations coordinates with students to do more than just collect waste products.

Atkinson said students are too busy to separate what not to keep from what they can shove in their cars. The intent is to have students re-evaluate what they don't need, and donate it.

"Sometimes students leave food behind; if it's not opened we give it to a family," Atkinson said. "If they have big ticket items such as a microwave, a fridge or a bed frame — call us. We will find a way to get if from their dorm to the warehouse. If we can steer stuff where it is needed, then that's even better than recycling."

According to the UCF Recycles website, 1,367,320 pounds of material were recycled, although 6,655,360 pounds of material were thrown away and put into the landfill in 2008-09. According to the website, 60 to 70 percent of all trash is most likely recyclable material.

Brian Wormwood, the associate director of Facilities Operations, supports the donating-beyond-recycling concept.

After the Facilities Operations staff salvages what it can from the dorm rooms, items are transported down the road to the center where items that may have otherwise ended up in a landfill find cherished homes.

"Once I witnessed a woman who showed up with no shoes; she asked if she could skip to the front of the line and go through the items first. She had nothing, nothing but the clothes on her back," Wormwood said.

According to Wormwood, Florida mandates that all government and state buildings recycle 30 percent of waste material; UCF currently stands at 25 percent. Wormwood has high hopes for both recycling and donating in the future. He understands that additional education is warranted. He'd like students to give a little more thought to such programs, because that mandated number will only increase in the future.

"We don't have the manpower to sort items for recycling; we don't," Wormwood said. "That is why recycling rests on the individual on campus. If you don't want it, don't need it, your parents don't know you have it, give it to us. We know there are people who are living in dire straits."