Mixed Recycling Promises Progress

Harvard students no longer have to worry about punctiliously sorting cardboard, bottles, cans, and plastics when taking out their recycling.

Single-stream recycling, which delegates all sorting responsibilities to the recycling processing plant, was officially instated on Harvard’s campus on July 1.

The switch from the dual-stream system, which separates bottles and cans from paper and cardboard, was instated to improve efficiency and reduce cost, according to Robert Gogan, Harvard’s associate manager for recycling services.

“We used to need two different trucks to get recycling,” he said. “That meant we spent two times as much in labor vehicle maintenance and clogged up the loading docks for a longer time.”

Prior to the official change this summer, Harvard had already started to transition to the single-stream method beginning last year by collecting materials mixed together in a single truck. That practice reduced their annual operational costs by $80,000, according to Gogan.

Single-stream recycling is also expected to increase participation rates at Harvard by making recycling more convenient.

Facilities Maintenance Operations distributed 2,000 new recycling bins to dorm rooms, giving nearly every student his own bin, as opposed to one set per suite.

“It used to be that students would walk through the yard, looking for the appropriate recycling bin, even trashing their recyclables out of impatience,” said Resource Efficiency Program Co-Captain Rachel H.Y. Mak ’10. “Now students can recycle at their own convenience.”

Single-stream recycling, which has recently been adopted in various cities and universities across the nation, has been correlated with increased recycling rates. The Web site of Waste Management, America’s top recycling company, states that single-stream recycling has “greatly increased participation and household recovery” of recyclables by 42 percent since they instated the system in 2002.

At Harvard, 53 percent of total refuse was recovered for recycling in the month of July. This percentage, which also includes compost, scrap metal, and wooden pallets in addition to basic recyclables, is about a 2 percent increase from last July. Gogan said he expects this number to rise over the semester.

“It’s really September-October that is going to tell the bigger story,” he said. “We’ve got a shot at breaking 55 [percent recovery] if single-stream really catches on.”

—Staff writer Natasha S. Whitney can be reached at nwhitney@fas.harvard.edu.