Recycling

Recycling is accomplished jointly by the departments of Facilities and Capital Planning, Housing & Dining, and Rice Athletics. Administrators have chosen to consider the far-reaching impacts of resource usage and have adopted a program that is ecology-minded and forward-thinking. Faculty and staff are responsible for managing their own trash and recyclables. Each office space has a small container called a “trash buddy” that hangs from a recycling bin. When either the recycling bin or trash buddy is full (or both), faculty and staff take these from their offices to centralized stations in their buildings(typically in hallways and/or kitchens) which are easily accessible. The trash buddy includes information on what type of waste is best suited to go inside. Anyone disposing of food waste is encouraged to take it directly to a kitchen area disposal location to avoid odors or attracting pests. At the large collection units, there is more detailed information on recycling. Working together and taking responsibility for our own trash and recycling, we enable each custodian to devote more hours each day to meet the highest priority cleaning needs of a building.

Recycling bins are located in every campus building, including the residential colleges, and in outdoor spaces including the athletic stadiums. Rice University’s recycling is collected by Waste Management and transported by truck to their state-of-the-art sorting facility in Houston, Texas.