Move-in/move-out recycling

We all know that whenever you move, you generate a lot of waste. Our department is moving to a new building soon, so everyone's cleaning out 19 years' worth of paper from their desks. At my old job, when people moved around and cleaned out their desks, huge 1/2-cubic-yard trash carts would be parked around the room. There were recycling bins, but not near the trash carts and not anywhere as big as the trash carts.

At Environmental Services, it's the opposite: the recycling carts dominate. These are 96-gallon carts; we're filling about 12 of them every couple of days.

Recycling our "technotrash" (VHS tapes, DVDs, CDs, cassette tapes, cords)

We also are donating a ton of materials and supplies for reuse: binders, shelving units, maps, Plexiglass boxes (which I found a home for via the Minnesota Materials Exchange), and office supplies to Companies to Classrooms, ArtStart, ARC's Value Village and Goodwill.

Angie's car loaded up with supplies for ArtStart.

Here's the trash at the end of one day.