LiveGreen is excited to announce new recycling bins provided by a grant funded by the Nebraska Environmental Trust. The funding allowed for the addition of bins at the Specialty Services Clinic, Clarkson College, East Campus Corporate Pavilion (ECCP), and several locations on the main campus.
- Tall or short green bins for mixed plastic and metal
- Both of these bins will hold both metal and plastic comingled. The plastic that goes in must be rigid — the number doesn’t matter, but the plastic must hold its own shape. Pop bottles, plastic trays, frozen lunch plates, yogurt cups can all go in. Plastic bags, Saran Wrap, cellophane, bubble wrap cannot.
- Items need to be emptied of food and liquid prior to placing them in the bin, but they don’t need to be super clean. Not every bit of food needs to be out or off, but the bulk should be removed. You can use the napkin you ate with to get the excess out and call it good.
- Clean patient care/work-related items can go in the bin as well. Examples include saline bottles, plastic jugs and so on. Tubing, items that have had patient fluids on them (even if they normally go in the trash), or items that look like medical waste cannot be placed in the containers. If you are not sure if it looks like medical waste, please consider it trash until you confirm with LiveGreen@unmc.edu.
- Some locations will receive stainless steel “triple bins.” They are all attached as one unit, but have three distinct bins: paper/locked/slot opening, landfill/square opening, mixed plastic and metal/round opening.
The bins must stay in the location where they are placed. LiveGreen worked with colleagues and LiveGreen Ambassadors in the space to determine where bins were needed and then found locations that meet code. If there is an issue with a bin location and you want to relocate it, please email LiveGreen@unmc.edu so LiveGreen can verify the new location is acceptable.
If you see your Environmental Services workers, please thank them! They physically haul all recycling (and trash) on this campus and recycling wouldn’t be possible without their hard work. Also know that recycling bins aren’t emptied until they are three-quarters full. This helps with efficiency but also decreases the number of plastic bags we have to use, an unfortunate side effect of recycling.