Recycling
Facilities Management proudly operates the recycling program for the University of Northern Colorado. UNC has collected and processed over 173 tons of recyclable materials on average per year, saving over 906.7 tons of trash from the landfill in the last 5 years. The recycling program recycles paper, cardboard, comingle, and confidential materials on site and partners with off campus vendors to haul recyclable materials and sell them to market.
The Environmental Health and Safety department handles the recycling or disposal of materials such as light bulbs, batteries and used oil. On-campus yard waste, like branches, twigs and leaves, are repurposed by our UNC grounds department and a resident hall yard sale is held annually, by the Classified Staff Council, in effort to repurpose clothing, housewares, small appliances and games. Any unwanted furniture, equipment or bulkier items in campus buildings are accepted and can be scheduled for pick up with our Campus Surplus Program year round. Bins are located both indoors and outdoors on campus, and at sporting events, special, and large scale events, and student move in and move out. For more information, please check out the rest of our website.
Campus Surplus Program
The UNC Campus Surplus houses used office furniture that has been discarded from various departments on campus. The surplus is open to the campus community every Wednesday from 10:00 to 11:30a.m. and moving services will deliver selected furniture anywhere on campus. For more information, contact the Service Center at 351-2446.
Classified Staff
Council Garage Sale
This annual event features donated items from students and UNC staff as a fundraiser for scholarships, Student Activities and CSC programs. This end-of-the-year sale includes clothing, housewares, small appliances, bedding, books and more. Watch for details about the yard sale in early May. For more information or to donate items, contact classifiedstaff.council@unco.edu.
Bear Essentials
When residence halls close at the end of the academic year, students can help reduce, reuse and recycle unwanted goods (and help those in need) with the Bear Essentials program. Bear Essentials is an annual project designed to collect unneeded items from hall residents (such as food items, good clothing, shoes, furnishings, etc.). Some items are donated to local charities for distribution and others are sold to raise money for scholarships and professional development. The hall front desks will have a drop off location for your smaller items and there will be designated areas across campus roped off for the larger furniture items. Please see your front desk or hall staff for details.
Yard Waste
UNC grounds workers collect yard waste, such as branches, twigs and leaves. Branches and tree limbs are fed into a Vermeer wood-chipper, generating mulch for the university landscape. Over the past four years UNC has recycled approximately 2500 cubic yards of yard waste. Of the recycled waste, a total of 1740 cubic yards was collected after the early snowstorm of October 26 to 27, 2011.
Since2008, the University has successfully diverted nearly 3000 cubic yards of waste from Colorado landfills, resulting in high quality composts, mulches, and other recycled materials, produced by A-I Organics. These products are available to the landscape industry and Colorado citizens for landscaping and soil amendment purposes. The university also receives a significant discount on its products due to our contribution of raw materials, which include tree and shrub prunings, leaves, discarded sod, weeds, branches, grass clippings, and other compostable yard waste.
