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Recycling


Recycling is just part of what we do every day at UWGB – it’s part of our culture and we make it easy and convenient to do your part! This page provides information on what you can recycle and where you can recycle it, so take a minute to check out all the possibilities.
 

Single Stream: What Can You Recycle?

We do single-stream recycling on campus. This means all your recyclables (paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, and aluminum) go into the recycling bin together. But wait you may wonder…why is there a separate bin for paper/cardboard if we do single-stream recycling? Well, in all academic and public buildings on campus we do separate the paper and cardboard because it goes into one of our big paper compactors on campus and we get paid a small amount from the recycling company! Keeping it separate provides a higher quality paper than if it’s got soda, water or other wet contaminates. You’ll find over 60 recycling stations like the one in the picture above located across campus – with at least one on every floor, in every building! The recycling stations in the Union look a bit different, but do the same thing.

If you live in housing, it is true single-stream recycling: paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, and aluminum and other metal cans go into the same bin! The big blue recycling dumpsters are located close by all the housing buildings, so it’s easy to drop off your recycling whenever it is convenient for you.

Below are recycling guides with lots of tips and background information:
Simplified Brown County Recycling Guide (PDF) 
2018 Tri-County Recycling Guide (PDF)

 

Reasons to Recycle

  • Save energy: Throwing away an aluminum soda can wastes as much energy as pouring out that can half filled with gasoline.
  • Save natural resources: Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees and 462 gallons of oil.
  • Recover valuable resources: Plastic soda and water bottles can be recycled into clothing, carpeting, plastic ‘wood’, or another plastic bottle.
  • Generate less pollution: Making paper from recycled paper reduces the pollution involved in the process by 95 percent.
  • Conserve landfill space: The more we recycle, the longer our available landfill space lasts.
  • Create jobs: For every 10,000 tons of recycled material, 32 new jobs are created. Just sorting collected recyclable materials sustains, on a per ton basis, 10 times more jobs than landfilling.
  • It’s the right thing to do.
 

Special Items – Beyond Single-Stream

In addition to the standard recyclables of paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and metal/aluminum, our campus also recycles a number of other items. So, check here first if you have something you think can be recycled – there just might be a collection spot on campus!

  • BATTERIES AND CELLPHONES

    Button batteries and rechargeable batteries (lithium) can be recycled on campus at one of the following collection stations. Alkaline batteries are not recyclable on campus – they can currently be disposed of in the normal trash going to the landfill. For more information, refer to UW-Green Bay's Battery Disposal Guide (PDF, 0.4 MB).

    Cellphones can be recycled at the same place as the batteries! Look for the green cardboard boxes that say "Call to Recycle", where you can drop off both cellphones and batteries:

    1. Cofrin Library, 3rd floor, on top of waste bin in the staircase
    2. Housing and Community Center, 1st floor, next to mailroom office
  • AEREOSOL CANS
    1. Wood Hall: WS-101, Operations Room

Plastic Film Recycling

Since Spring 2014, plastic bags and plastic film materials can be recycled through a network of over 35 drop-off stations on campus. Recyclable materials include: grocery bags, bread bags (if clean and dry), produce bags (if clean and dry), dry cleaning bags, plastic wrap on toilet paper/water bottles/etc., plastic sleeves used to protect your newspaper, and similar plastic films.

This Concouplastic-film-locationsrse Map (PDF, 0.1 MB) shows the locations of all drop-off stations in academic buildings

Further Locations:
  • Laundry rooms of all residential buildings on campus
  • Housing and Community Center, 1st floor, next to the Mailroom
  • Shipping and Receiving department

Student workers and volunteers from student organizations PEAC (Public and Environmental Affairs Council) are managing the collection and baling of all recycled materials. Since the start of the 2014-2015 academic year, the students have collected 5,452 pounds of plastic film, diverting over 2.5 tons from the landfill. That's the equivalent of 494,605 plastic grocery bags. Now, those bags are being used in people's backyards as TREX decking.

More information on plastic film recycling and pictures of the types of materials that can be recycled can be found at: 
www.plasticfilmrecycling.org
 

Learn more about recycling

The College and University Recycling Coalition (CURC) hosts a series of free webinars on topics ranging from recycling to community engagement. 
www.facebook.com/CURCRecycling

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources also provides lots of tips on recycling – check it out! 
dnr.wi.gov

Tip: Find more websites with great sustainability information, on our Online Resources page.