In eastern Maryland, Salisbury University, has made such improvements in their waste disposal and recycling systems that they are now diverting more than fifty percent of all waste materials generated on campus.

Recycling started at Salisbury back in 1980, and over the years the service has grown and been enhanced to include everything from the dining hall’s cooking grease to old carpets. In recent months, the University has formed a strategic partnership with a composting facility in Delaware to compost all of its food and organic materials waste. This change helped to increase the recycling rate by almost twenty five percent.

The school’s food scraps are sent to Blue Hen Organics where the resulting compost is sold to area gardeners, landscaping businesses, and farmers. So far, over three hundred tons of food waste, that otherwise would have ended up in local landfills, has been diverted and re-used.

The school has also invested in additional recycling collection bins for glass, aluminum, and cardboard and will be holding a recycling competition later this academic year. According the school officials, the goal is to have the school reach a one hundred percent recycling rate so that the reliance and cost of disposing of trash become zero.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Schools are the perfect place to start recycling programs. Students are typically eager to participate and administrators are always on the look-out for ways to cut costs. What is your local school doing to promote recycling?