All in the Hall Recycling Program

The All in the Hall Recycling Program is UNL’s comprehensive recycling program which will provide a convenient, reliable, and consistent opportunity for the campus community to recycle within campus buildings. Through phased implementation over time, standardized waste stations will be placed throughout campus buildings in high traffic, centralized locations, and all waste items deposited within the stations, including landfill and recycling materials, will be serviced regularly by Custodial Services staff. UNL community members will be asked to monitor the waste they individually produce on campus and transport items to the nearest conveniently located, centralized station, as Custodial Services staff will repurpose their time spent collecting landfill waste from private office spaces to focus on servicing all waste streams from the new stations. The All in the Hall recycling program is being implemented campus-wide based on the success of the Recycling Pilot Project, which was launched in eight campus buildings in December 2020. Centralized waste collection programs have been successfully implemented at some Big Ten peer and other nation-wide higher education institutions, including the University of Minnesota, University of Iowa, University of Kansas, Duke University, and the University of Tennessee.

Eight buildings across UNL’s City and East campuses were initially included in the project, which are listed below.

City Campus:

• Alexander

• Andersen Hall

• Canfield Administration

• Hamilton Hall

• Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center and Van Brunt Visitors Center

East Campus:

• Agricultural Hall

• Filley Hall and Food Industry Complex

• Hardin Hall

Due to major renovation projects, the project was expanded to include three additional buildings including the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, the Dinsdale Family Learning Commons, and the Nebraska East Union.

UNL has not previously established a comprehensive recycling plan for the campus-community to follow, which has led to mismatched containers and locally coordinated recycling programs that are often confusing, inconvenient, and inefficient. Results of a 2019 Office of Sustainability survey indicate that over 93% of 9,000 faculty, staff, and students at UNL identify recycling as a priority on campus. The All in the Hall program is based on the success of the Recycling Pilot Project and intended to make recycling easier and more efficient at UNL, provide better education for the campus community, and help achieve University-wide sustainability goals of becoming a zero-waste campus by 2030, as outlined in UNL’s 2020 Environment, Sustainability, and Resilience Master Plan. Through phased implementation over time, it is expected that the amount of materials correctly recycled at UNL will increase and the amount of materials sent to the landfill will decrease. Pre-pilot waste audits in each of the pilot buildings revealed that an average 18% of materials found in landfill streams could be recycled instead. Since implementation of the pilot project, this has decreased to 8%! It is expected that empowering the UNL community to monitor and sort their waste items will lead to more mindful consumption and disposal behaviors, reducing contamination and improving recycling rates.

As part of the All in the Hall recycling program, UNL faculty and staff, students, and campus visitors will be asked to monitor the waste they individually produce on campus and transport items to the nearest conveniently located, centralized waste station. Custodial Services staff will repurpose their time previously spent collecting landfill waste from private office spaces to focus on servicing all waste streams from the new stations, including both landfill and recyclable materials. As a member of the UNL community, you are being asked to be mindful about the waste you produce and do your part to help UNL achieve less contamination in our recycling streams and divert more waste from going to the landfill!

Centralized waste stations will replace mismatched, randomly placed recycling and landfill containers (trash cans) in hallways, conference rooms, and classrooms. Landfill containers will remain in restrooms and qualifying laboratory spaces, and they will continue to be serviced by UNL Custodial Services (CS). Currently in use deskside containers will not be taken away (unless otherwise requested), but they will not be serviced by CS. If a building occupant chooses to keep their deskside trash or recycling container, it is their responsibility to transport its contents to the nearest waste station and sort items for disposal.

Through the collaboration with UNL’s Environmental Health and Safety team during the Recycling Pilot Project, it was determined that all research labs and those classroom labs which meet certain criteria will be unaffected by this change and will continue to have landfill containers regularly serviced by Custodial Services. Qualifying classroom lab spaces include those where chemicals, biological agents, and/or radioactive materials are used. This is generally identified through the presence of hazardous materials or infrastructure to handle such (e.g., fume hood, safety shower, etc.).

A variety of deskside size waste containers are available at no cost to UNL departments at the weekly Inventory Open House on East Campus. These gently used containers are available in multiple colors and sizes.

Please email the Facilities Service Desk at servicedesk@unl.edu with your request. Requests will be routed to UNL’s Refuse and Diversion Services team to deliver the appropriate containers. Please note that containers will be delivered to the requested building dock and will need to be returned to the dock by the requestor in order to be emptied.

UNL Custodial Services (CS) will not provide plastic liners for personal deskside waste containers. If a building occupant chooses to keep deskside waste containers in their personal work space, it is their responsibility to maintain them.

Station locations are determined through conversations with building representatives and Custodial staff to understand traffic patterns. Stations are primarily located in high traffic areas near restrooms, stairs and elevators, and building entrances to provide convenient locations to dispose of waste items.

UNL Custodial Services staff closely monitor stations, to avoid any instance of a full container. Should this happen, please contact the UNL Facilities Service Desk by calling (402) 472-1550.

Most waste items commonly produced at UNL are accepted for disposal in the waste stations. Clear, image centric, color-coded graphics are located on top of the stations, providing direction on what is accepted in each stream. The waste stations have four streams- paper, aluminum cans, plastic bottles and containers, and landfill. Streams have shape-restricted openings to cue users on accepted materials. Corrugated cardboard is also accepted at the stations and should be flattened and placed behind the stations. Items placed in any recycling stream should be clean, dry, and free of food or other non-recyclable waste. Check out the Recycling Guide to learn more!

Please flatten corrugated cardboard boxes and place them behind the waste station or take them directly to the nearest cardboard dumpster located on the building dock or in an outdoor dumpster area. Paperboard items, such as soda can and tissue boxes should be placed in the paper recycling stream.

Pizza boxes can be recycled, but only if the cardboard is clean, dry, and does not have any solid food residue. Pizza boxes must be free of contaminants including solid food residue (leftover pizza) and other waste items including pizza savers (little table), wax paper, sauce containers, etc. Small grease stains are okay. If your pizza boxes meet these criteria, please flatten your boxes and place them behind the waste station or take them directly to the nearest cardboard dumpster. If boxes are contaminated and not acceptable for recycling, they should be disposed of with landfill waste.

Yes, office cleaning service is not affected by the All in the Hall program. UNL Custodial Services continue regular office cleaning service, but do not provide weekly trash service.

There are no changes to shredding processes in campus buildings operating under the All in the Hall program. Containers currently in place for confidential documents will remain in place as is.

The Office of Sustainability has partnered with University Housing to implement a pilot All in the Hall program in Knoll Residential Center, University Suites, and Eastside Suites. As part of this pilot program, All in the Hall waste stations are located in high traffic areas throughout the residence halls. The waste stations are intended to be used for waste produced in study rooms and other common areas as well as on the go. Trash rooms on each floor of the three residence halls have also been updated with new containers and signage to align with the messaging of the All in the Hall program. Residents in these halls should continue to take waste generated in their residence hall rooms to the trash rooms. This pilot project will be used a learning experience to inform future implementation of the program in other Housing facilities on campus.