Sustain Mizzou's Recycle Mountain eye opening to students
Four tons of recyclable materials are thrown away every day at MU.
Published March 5, 2009
Seeing is believing when it comes to the amount of material that can be recycled on campus in one day.
Members of Sustain Mizzou held their Recycle Mountain event on Lowry Mall in order to raise recycling awareness. Volunteers stood on top of the bundles of recyclables that represented the amount of material thrown away each day on campus that could have been salvaged, while handing out pamphlets encouraging students to recycle.
More than four tons of recyclable materials, 8,700 pounds, are thrown away on the MU campus every day, according to Sustain Mizzou. That is 27 percent of the trash generated on campus each day that could have been recycled. It all adds up to 3,175,500 pounds of recyclable material from campus alone sent to landfills each year.
"We are using resources we need today in order to have resources we'll need in the future," Sustain Mizzou member Robert Lehn said.
According to the pamphlet handed out by the members, recycling saves MU $95,584 per year in hauling and disposal costs.