How am I doing? At some point, you have to ask yourself that question. Maybe it’s to plot a strategic direction. Maybe it is part of a benefit-cost analysis. Maybe it is to validate the efforts of those who have participated in or supported your recycling program. But, whatever the reason, at some point you have to ask yourself how you are doing. And like any question, the answer often depends on your perspective.
If you’re a campus planner or facilities administrator, summertime dreaming often means that you are scrambling to put the finishing touches on summer construction plans. This is often the final home stretch of a particular project that has been in process for years.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may have noticed that sometimes I don’t see things quite like other people in my field (if you are a longtime colleague of mine, you have just finished thinking “that’s an understatement” after reading the preceding sentence). One area where I often see things a little differently regards recycling regulations.
It’s that time of year. The ball fields are ready. The players are ready. Is your recycling program?
As the sustainable-materials-management industry has grown since the 1980s, we have added a lot of goals, regulations and reports. And in those, we use a lot of terms. But what do we mean when we use those terms? Too often, what makes a recycling program a rousing success or a spectacular failure comes down not to efforts, investments, programs, but merely definitions.
If you are a college or university, depending on when classes start, you are either already knee deep in student move-in issues or about to be. If you are a new reader, below are some previously-written blog posts to help you navigate some of the recycling and sustainability issues you will encounter as the students return. And if you are a returning reader, hopefully one of these posts will remind you of something that you said you wanted to try this year.
Branding is generally an attempt to associate your product or company with certain ideas or images to clearly differentiate it from others in the field. At its most basic, it is little different than its roots, in which ranchers would mark their animals so that they could be easily identified when roaming or grazing together, a practice that dates back to the ancient Egyptians or beyond. Eventually, that same concept was used in commerce so that when similar products from different manufacturers were shipped or sold together, each product could be clearly identified.
If you manage recycling programs at a residential campus, student move out is one of the most frantic periods of the year. If you’re new to the process, it can be overwhelming. But, regardless of whether you are still planning for move out, staring at the piles of discarded stuff accumulating as students are moving out, or have already missed your window of opportunity and are merely leaving notes for things to do better next year, focusing on the six items below will help.
Restrictive lids are one of if not the most effective way to reduce contamination in a recycling bin. Restrictive lids restrict the type of material that can be placed into a bin. For recycling to work, you have to segregate the materials that you want to recycle from those that you don’t.If you didn’t have a restrictive lid you would typically rely on a label on the front of your bin to identify that stream. But for bin labels to work most effectively, you need a clear line of sight and adequate time to read the label.
Successfully growing and sustaining recycling programs can sometimes depend on something as simple as where you budget recycling expenses. As budgets are being set for next fiscal year, now is the time to think about what you want accomplish next year, how you want to fund it, and perhaps most importantly, where you want to fund it.
Each purchase made from Max-R Lumber™ contributes to our goal of 1 BILLION milk jugs saved from landfills and oceans. Approximately 1,200 milk jugs are saved with each bin.
Since 2000, Max-R has been finding new ways to innovate and change the culture of recycling. As the innovator of the customized waste and recycle bin, our in-house engineering and design team created nine signature collections, developed thousands of options and configurations, and limitless ways to customize your ideal waste and recycle bin.
We believe that your waste and recycling program deserves more than just a blue bin. It deserves a thoughtfully planned collection of bins that are going to meet all of your functional and aesthetic needs as well as your brand standards and will foster the growth of your sustainability program.
