Coordinator shares tips on recycling as part of training program

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Recycling and Composting Information
To learn more about recycling, contact Becky Valentich at becky@uta.edu or 817-272-0199

Faculty and staff learned the do’s and dont’s of going green in a recycling training program held Tuesday.

Becky Valentich, Environmental Health and Safety recycling coordinator, gave a one-hour Power Point presentation on recycling in the University Center San Saba Room. As an effort by the Office of Sustainability, the training program will continue into the summer and fall.

Valentich gave training on the process of recycling to support and promote the President’s Sustainability Committee. Valentich presented “Mavericks Go Green: Please Recycle, It Works When We All Pitch In!”

Valentich explained how, what and where students, faculty and staff can recycle on campus, lawns, cars, UTA residence halls and apartments.

Valentich said recycling means taking a product or material at the end of its useful life and turning it into usable raw materials to make another product. A typical family consumes 29 gallons of juice, 104 gallons of milk and 26 gallons of bottled water a year.

“2,000 pounds of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,0000 kilowatts of energy and 7,000 gallons of water,” Valentich said. “This represents a 64 percentage energy, 58 percent water and 60 pounds less of air pollution.”

When recycling on campus, people can throw paper in blue containers, aluminum cans and plastic bottles in gray hexagonal containers. The university’s recycling stream doesn’t include computer monitors, CPU units, mouses, keyboards and cords.

Valentich said people could save the environment by going green in the kitchen.

“When filling a kettle, fill with only the amount you will need,” Valentich said. “Filling a kettle to the brim will waste electricity. If you did this for one week it would save enough energy to light up a house for a day, or run your TV set every evening for a week.”

She said people can save gas by dumping the excess weight in their cars.

“Go through the trunk and see if there is anything you can leave out,” Valentich said. “You can probably dump up to 100 pounds of unnecessary stuff. This will increase your car mileage considerably over time and could save up to $10 a week on fuel costs.”

Loretta Jo Doty, Graduate Studies support specialist II, said she enjoyed the training session.

“I liked the trivia,” Doty said. “I learned one aluminum can can save enough energy to run a TV for three hours and five two liters bottles can produce a cotton shirt.”

Doty said people should be more conscious about throwing recyclable papers away because it saves trees and helps the environment, she said.

Valentich said a map of recycling bin locations on campus will be added soon to the Sustainability’s Web site.

Larry Harrison, Facilities Management associate director, said he is very aggressive with the recycling program. Last year, 535.55 tons of recycled materials were recycled, he said.

University’s groundskeeper Eli Quinon said the training was informative.

“I do see a lot of things that are not recycled,” Quinon said. “It takes a little extra time to recycle.”