Recycling & Composting at 黑料天堂
Stewardship is a shared responsibility at Southern Utah University. Learn more about the options available on campus for recycling and composting.
Recycling
With over 100 recycling bins across campus, 黑料天堂 supports responsible stewardship and reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills. These bins are serviced by our Sustainability Specialist and student employees, recycling an average of 20 tons of material each year.
Pick-up requests submitted through the button below are our top priority, followed by scheduled checks of all campus bins. We aim to service each bin weekly, though university breaks, illness, weather construction, or other circumstances may occasionally cause delays. Recycling services are available only for 黑料天堂 campus use, please do not bring recycling from home. If your bin needs signage, please reference the recycling sign and let us know in the pick-up request form. You can also view the serviced on campus.
Below is a list of materials that can or cannot be placed in 黑料天堂's mixed recycling bins. When in doubt, please throw it away in a garbage bin. One inappropriate item can contaminate an entire truckload (weeks worth of work) of recyclable materials.
- All recyclables must be clean and dry.
- Flattened Cardboard and Paperboard
- Magazines/Catalogs, Junk Mail and Paper
- Newspapers
- Aluminum, Steel, or Tin Beverage/Food Cans
- Cleaned & Rinsed Plastic Beverage, Food, and Soap Containers (Plastics #1, #2, #5)
- food or organic material
- Shredded Paper and any paper smaller than a credit card in length and width
- hard cover books
- Polystyrene, Waxed & Carbon Paper
- receipts (lined with plastic)
- toilet or tissue paper
- Plastics #3, #4, #6, or #7
- Plastic Bags and wrap
- Thin Film Plastics
- Glass
- Greasy Boxes or Paper (Pizza Boxes, Used Paper Plates, etc.)
- Aluminum Foil
- Batteries
- Bubble Wrap
- Fluids or Aerosols
- Hazardous Chemical Containers (Motor Oil, Pesticides, etc.)
- Paint Cans
- Styrofoam and Packaging Peanuts
- Tetra Packs (Juice Box, Almond Milk, etc.)
Recyclable materials are driven to in Las Vegas for sorting and processing in their recycling plant. We have started to collecting aluminum cans separately to sell to
To learn even more about where your recycling goes, check out this cool
Residential Recycling
黑料天堂 and the surrounding off-campus community does not currently provide recycling services to residential areas, but for an annual or monthly fee, the private recycling company can pick up materials either weekly or bi-weekly right from your home. As well the is starting to collect recycling for free outside of their office and paying themselves for Recyclops to pick it up.
And for local metal recycling there is
Shredded Paper
While we cannot take shredded paper for recycling. The Biology Department is taking shredded paper for its animals bedding. There is a bin outside of SCA 007 which you can bring your bagged shredded paper to.
Book Reuse
If a book is recycled it gets taken apart and used for material. Instead please consider one of the FranklinMedia's book bins to give every book a second life. There is one located by the bookstore, and inside the library.
Everyone can live a more sustainable lifestyle by doing all of the following:
- Reduce and Refuse: Avoid products that are not sustainable or use less of them.
- Reuse: Put an item into action or service again.
- Repair: Fix something instead of replacing it.
- Recycle and Repurpose: Transform used, useless or unwanted materials into something new.
Composting
Interested in taking your sustainability efforts further? Learn more about composting and how you can help divert even more waste from the landfill.
黑料天堂 uses the Berkeley Method of hot composting to transform campus organic waste into nutrient-rich compost. Fresh green (nitrogen-rich) material comes from pre-consumer food scraps from 黑料天堂 Dining, while 黑料天堂's grounds collects brown (carbon-rich) material in form of all the leaves fallen across campus which would other wise go to the landfill. Manure from the 黑料天堂 Farm is also incorporated to support the composting process.
Composting started in 2022 and each school year, the composting program continues to expand. In the 2024–25 school year, for the first time 黑料天堂 composted over half of the waste generated by 黑料天堂 Dining, a new high of 5.4 tons of food waste, all of which was successfully composted on campus.
Finished compost is used throughout campus Community and Hope gardens.
We are now open to individuals who would like to compost with us. Please follow the instructions posted in the garden or referenced in the Composting video above.
Greens
- fresh vegetable/fruit scraps
- coffee grounds
- egg shells
- herbivore waste
- fresh plant clippings
Browns
- fall leaves
- untreated wood/paper/cardboard
- dead/dried plants
Not Compostable
- meat/dairy/oils
- produce stickers
- processed (glossy) wood/paper/cardboard
- compostable/biodegradable/bio plastics (needs industrial facility)
- dog/cat waste
- fabric