Recycling at KUMC

Welcome to the University of Kansas Medical Center recycling website.

The KUMC Student Recycling Organization won the KUMC Student Organization of the year award for 2005-2006. This was in recognition of great leadership and commitment to the community! Way to go guys!!

The recycling committee aims to raise awareness of the KUMC community about recycling and to give people the tools to be environmentally responsible.

Aluminum, tin and plastic are collected in one bin. Bins are in various locations around campus and are either Blue or Green in color. We will soon be changing to all blue bins. Please recycle your newspapers located beside the Newspaper Program areas.

NEW, NEW, NEW People bringing recycling from home can take their recycling to the large green/yellow bins located around campus. Please see KUMC drop off areas for locations. This will ensure we do not have piles of recycling sitting around campus. Thanks for your cooperation and enjoy the convenience!!

URGENT NEED....We have had a request for old cell phones. Rose Brooks Center is currently collecting old cell phones for use by their families staying in their shelter. If you or anyone you know would like to donate a used cell phone, please feel free to send to Elvia Brown, KUMC 3901 Rainbow Blvd, MS 4006, Kansas City, KS 66160.

Did you know you can recycle X-Rays? NTH Enterprises takes old x-rays. They are located in Halstead, KS. If you would like to recycle x-rays, please call 316-835-2088. They come to KC about every two weeks. They will weigh your x-rays and you will receive a little money for your recycling. Jump on board!

NEW GLASS RECYCLING AROUND TOWN: Currently KUMC does not handle glass recycling, but we are looking into it. Here is the link to Ripple Glass Co., who does recycle glass in the city. If you look here, you can find the site closest to you. Strasser Hardware is currently the closest to KUMC. http://www.rippleglasskc.com/ We are currently working on getting a glass recycling bin on campus. Will update as soon as possible.

NEW DEPARTMENTAL RECYCLING PROPOSAL- - - - -Student recycling would like to launch a departmentally run recycling program. Currently the University of Kansas campus does not recycle all it can. In looking at the trash samples, we see there is a good amount of paper, etc. that is not being recycled from around campus. We would like to change that. We propose to provide 1-2 bins per department (university departments only) to allow you to recycle within your department. (These bins are about the same size as the bins you have for street side recycling at home.) What we need is your support. We need a person within each department who would be assigned to take your recycling bins to the dumpsters located outside, around campus. This would not only help the environment, but also save precious dollars being paid out in additional trash hauling fees. Again, recycling must be taken out to the large dumpsters located outside the buildings such as behind the library, behind the student center or support services or the two located inside the courtyard. Unfortunately, student recycling does not have enough volunteers to handle recycling for all departments on campus.

We would like to know exactly how many bins to order. Please decide on your departmental contact and e-mail Fonda Briles at fbriles@kumc.edu and we will get a list started of names, phone numbers and departments who will participate. One suggestion has been to assign the person who is responsible for your Shred-It boxes in each department. Each department can place their recycling (all paper, aluminum, plastic and tin) in the smaller bins to make it more convenient to recycle and then this person can simply take those two bins to the larger ones outside. This could be done once a week. The Registrar's Office and Dean of Student's Office currently recycle paper and they assign a student work study student who takes the recycling to the large bin located behind the Student Center, but usually only every other week is needed to dump it.

Everything that can be done toward recycling efforts saves us money in the future and also saves the environment. Please feel free to contact fbriles@kumc.edu if you are interested in helping with this effort or have any questions.