We all want to get it right with plastics recycling, but with varying recycling rules and discouraging sounding statistics about recycling, it can be a bit confusing. Additionally, there isn’t just one type of plastic; in fact, there are 7 main types of plastics. Despite the confusion, properly sorting and recycling plastics is a key part of the University of … Read More
John Berger has been working as a custodian at the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus for 14 years, and in that time, he’s gained a reputation for always going the extra mile when it comes to proper waste disposal— literally. In his own words, “I’ve been known to carry a banana peel all the way from the other side of the … Read More
I tend to think of myself as someone who’s in-the-know when it comes to sustainability efforts going on across U-M, but one project I had, up until recently, not known much about is the effort to pilot returnables shelves on landfill bins. I had seen the shelves popping up in a few different locations across Central Campus and wanted to … Read More
In elementary or middle school, you may have learned about the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. A lot of attention is given to recycling in order to reduce carbon emissions and conserve natural resources; however, there are still significant environmental costs associated with recycling. For example, recycling trucks that pick up curbside recycling use fossil fuels, and a lot … Read More
I often get asked during PBA trainings, “How clean do my recyclables really need to be?” So, I put together this instructional post based on cleaning a peanut butter jar. There are a few different ways you can do this, but this is the one I use. It balances getting the peanut butter jar clean without using too much water, … Read More
