Recyclers want to step up NT's program, include students of environmental science

By Kelly KosikowskiDaily Reporter

Within a few years, NT may have a "Dumpsterless campus," Lanse Fullinwider, grounds and waste service manager, said Monday.

The waste management strategy plan would eliminate the middle man, making NT sort and bale its own waste and send it directly to the manufacturer. The waste would then be divided into two groups: wet stream and dry stream. The wet stream would include plastic, aluminum, and waste trash, such as bathroom trash. The dry stream would be all paper products and material.

The two streams would be taken into a double-bodied truck, keeping the wet and dry streams separate, to a material recycling facility. The dry waste, carried in blue bags, would be put on a conveyer belt and sent to be sorted. Then it would be put on a different conveyer belt and sent to a baler. The wet waste would not be sorted on a conveyer belt.

Fullinwider said he hopes to run the conceptual waste management plan in conjunction with NT's environmental science program by having environmental education students do the sorting.

Duane Roberts, head of housing maintenance, is eager to get the plan started.

"The more we pitch in, the more trees we'll save," Roberts said.

By baling its own waste, NT would receive a higher price per ton. The shipment of large quantities would help pay for equipment and other necessities. Fullinwider said he hopes to utilize grants for the disadvantaged and students to help fund the plan.

NT recycled 390 tons of waste in the 1997-98 fiscal year, receiving about $12,000, he said. This was a decrease of 68 tons from the 1994-95 fiscal year, when NT reached its maximum recycling amount in eight years.

About 80 percent of "Dumpster trash" can be recycled, Fullinwider said. Reducing the paper, plastic, and aluminum that is not recycled would allow NT to pay less money to the landfills. He said he believes this would tremendously reduce the amount of money NT pays the city of Denton.

Fullinwider said NT pays Denton between $60,000 and $70,000 yearly to dispose of waste. The price is determined according to the number of truck loads disposed of, he said.

The recycling program was initiated in January 1990. A six-month study was done to decide what was best for NT, and administration officials provided a $13,000 grant to start a recycling program. Six months later, in January 1991, the program started in five

buildings. By the end of the year all major buildings, excluding residence halls, were included. Housing does its own recycling.

To man the new recycling program, employees were "borrowed" from the grounds department. There are two employees who collect a ton of material a day. This is twice the man power the program started out with.

Fullinwider said he believes it is time for the recycling program to step to the next level.

"I realistically can't educate everyone, which needs to be done," he said.