Recycling bins finally come to The Edge

The Edge at Avenue North, which opened its doors in fall 2006, installed a recycling program Monday, Sept. 24. Before the arrival of recycling bins last week, some residents at the Edge were disturbed by the lack of recycling.

Mark Simpson, property manager of the Edge, said the main reason for the yearlong absence of recycling was his indecision on whether to use Temple’s recycling program, the National Paper Recycling company or a private company to manage the program.

The Edge has official Temple housing on floors two through five. The first floor and floors six through 12 are privately owned by Tower Investments, and it, along with Simpson, has decided to use Allied Waste Management, the company who already removes the building’s trash, to pick up recycling on all floors.

The Edge uses the co-mingling method, where glass, plastic, aluminum, cardboard and paper are placed in the same bin. Paper and cardboard are separated from the other materials by the cleaning staff before being placed in a larger receptacle. Allied Waste Management will remove recycling when called, rather than on set days.

So far, Simpson said that residents have been utilizing the bins.

“The 50-gallon bins have been found to be about one-quarter full at the end of each day,” Simpson said. Recycling bins are located outside the Edge, inside the lobby and in every trash room on each floor.

Residents of the Edge seemed pleased with the new addition of recycling facilities.

“I think we should have had it all along”, said Eric Giuliano, a sophomore theatre major. The Edge’s monthly newsletter will publish recycling information in the October issue.

Educating residents on how to recycle effectively is a factor that can determine the success of a recycling program. H. Marshall Budin, Temple’s recycling manager, said he remembers when he first came to Temple, he would see a lot of recycling in the trash.

Since then, Budin has worked closely with Temple’s assistant director of building services Littleton Abraham and Students for Environmental Action to ensure that students in residence halls are motivated to recycle.

Budin said targeting residence halls for recycling makes sense.

“Student housing is where they are living, eating, studying and creating waste,” Budin said.

SEA produces flyers and hangs them on residence hall doors. The flyers provide information on what type of materials can be recycled, as well as information about Recycle Mania, a national recycling competition whose mission is to increase the number of recyclables collected on campuses. The competition runs from late January to early April every year.

Unlike the Edge, Temple residence halls recycle cardboard and paper together and aluminum, glass and plastic in a separate container. They also recycle rechargeable and alkaline batteries and ink cartridges.

National Paper Recycling, based in Camden, N.J., has collected Temple recycling for the past five years. Copies of the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and USA Today are recycled from each residence hall and compiled in the back of Johnson and Hardwick residence halls. The newspapers are collected every Wednesday.

Temple recycles between 15,000 and 17,000 pounds of materials per day. The university even profits from some recycled materials, mainly cardboard, which is sold to Newman and Co. Paper for $50 per ton.

Money made from recycled materials can be reinvested into the university, providing more incentive to reduce Temple’s carbon footprints.

Emily Gleason can be reached at emilygleason@temple.edu.