Students Off to a Great Start

Congratulations to CU students and CU Recycling! From July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002, CU Boulder recycled 1,935,000 lbs. of paper and 314,000 lbs. of commingled containers. That amounts to savings of 4 million kilowatt hours of electricity, 58,000 pounds of air pollutants, 61,000 gallons of gasoline, 1,150 cubic yards of landfill space, 6.8 million gallons of water, and 15,500 forty-foot tall Douglas fir trees.

This school year, CU students are getting off to a great recycling start. In the first two weeks of school, nearly 6,000 new students in the residence halls recycled 33,000 pounds (16.5 tons) of cardboard moving boxes they’d used to transport items such as computers, bicycles, and stereos. CU Recycling’s intensive move-in cardboard recycling program diverted 400 cubic yards of cardboard from the landfill and prevented over 100 trash truck pick-ups. CU Recycling estimates that 95 percent of the cardboard was recovered for recycling. This effort resulted in the following savings: 200 forty-foot trees, 115,000 gallons of water, 1,000 pounds of air pollution, and 68,000 kilowatt hours of electricity.

For more information on the CU Recycling program, call 303-492-8307 or visit www.colorado.edu/recycle.