Bring us your old stuff on April 14

Volunteers from Staff Council move a large TV toward the Metech Recycling truck. Electronic waste is just one item being collected at U Recycle Day on April 14.

By Ayrel Clark-Proffitt, Sustainability Office

Does one of the following statements describe you?

1. I have old electronics (TV, toaster, curling iron, etc.) that I want to get out of my home;
2. I have old tax documents or files with personal information that I want to shred and recycle;
3. I want to donate food to the Feed U on-campus food pantry.

If one (or all!) of the above statements describes you, then join hundreds of other University and Salt Lake community members at U Recycle Day on Thursday, April 14 from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. on the south side of the Rice-Eccles Stadium Parking lot, 451 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City. Volunteers will be on hand to help unload your residential electronics, boxes of personal documents, and all the food you want to donate.

U Recycle Day is part of the broader University of Utah Community Engagement Day, which includes events such as tours of the Feed U Pantry, knitting hats with the Bennion Center, and tying toddler blankets with the Presidential Ambassadors for the University of Utah’s childcare program. The University’s Sustainability Office and Staff Council and Salt Lake County Health Department manage the recycling effort, with support from Samsung, the University Federal Credit Union, and Commuter Services.

Please note that business waste and University property cannot be recycled at this event. Please send all University electronics to Surplus & Salvage and all documents to Archives and Records Management.

Karren Nichols, president of University Staff Council, thinks this combined collection event is a great benefit for the community because being able to drop-off all the items in one location makes the event easier for participants.

“Participants don’t even need to get out of their cars. They simply drive through and happy volunteers do all of the heavy lifting of electronics and file boxes,” Nichols says. Those who bring items are greeted by “lots of smiling faces, all of which are working together to divert thousands of pounds of material from the landfill.”

Residential electronic waste collected in 2015 at the University of Utah recycling day. Participants can also recycle personal documents and donate food items.

Metech Recycling, a local electronics recycler, will provide recycling and disposal services for all electronics. Metech, a Certified e-Stewards Recycler, physically destroys all information storage devices, including hard drives, flash drives, and other memory storage devices, so no information can be recovered. For a list of accepted electronics, visit www.metechrecycling.com/about/acceptable-materials. Samsung is covering the cost of electronics recycling.

Shred Masters handles all paper shredding at the U Recycle Day event.

Shred Masters will handle the paper shredding and recycling. University Federal Credit Union is funding the shredding, and proceeds from the sale of the recycled paper will fund University staff scholarships, which can be used for courses, conferences, and other professional development.

Remember: On April 14, help keep items from going to the landfill by bringing us your tired, your broken, your unwanted electronics and personal documents, as well as food items to donate to the Feed U pantry. We’ll take it off your hands.

Flyer for the 2016 U Recycle Day 3-in-1 collection: E-Waste, Paper, & Food

Ayrel Clark-Proffitt is the campus engagement coordinator for the Sustainability Office and one of the event coordinators for U Recycle Day.