It’s been said that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, but at UAB’s recycling center, it just might be true.
With more than 23,000 university and health system employees, the university is Alabama’s largest single-site employer. The 86-block campus is a city within a city, and its residents consume an enormous amount of resources. Last year, the university’s recycling center collected more than 975,000 pounds of compostable cardboard and paper alone. Less than a decade ago, all 487 tons of paper would have met their end in a landfill. Today, though, plastic, paper and metal products are being collected and sold to manufacturers – all to the greater benefit of UAB’s bottom line.
With an institution as large as UAB, waste management can be a significant drain on the budget. The recycling center, however, brings in just as much revenue as it costs to fund, resulting in a break-even operation that turns waste into an asset.
“Each [collected] material is a commodity. Whether it’s plastic bottles or aluminum cans or fiber, each material has value to a consumer,” says UAB Recycling Center Director Jon Paolone. “We get a certain amount of money based upon the tonnage, also we get savings.”
The center functions almost like a business. It collects raw material (trash), which is then picked up and sorted by a third party. From there, the material is sold to manufacturing companies who turn the material into products. Through the sale of the goods, the center receives a rebate or refund from its vendors, which feeds back into its budget.
The real savings, though, come in from a decrease in what Paolone refers to as “tipping fees” – the cost paid to have trash hauled and dumped into a landfill. Because the recycling program cuts out the cost of tipping fees entirely, it significantly decreases the strain on its finances. In fact, this past year Paolone says that the center had a budget surplus.
Critics of recycling argue that it’s not a profitable proposition for large-scale institutions like businesses and cities to implement. They say that the cost of collecting and sorting materials is actually higher than simply disposing of them, and that the market for recycled goods is too volatile to be considered economically sound. Alabama Environmental Council Director Alan Gurganus disagrees. He thinks that recycling has both environmental and fiscal benefits.
“A lot of times environmentalists will focus on saving energy, but recycling is also an economic driver,” says Gurganus. “We have businesses that rely on recycled goods here in Alabama, but they have to import materials because they don’t have enough product.”
According to Gurganus, Alabama falls behind most states when it comes to sustainability. He says that this is due to the state’s lack of clear and strategic goals. He refers to states like Florida and California, which recently made announcements that they plan to increase their recycling by a certain percentage, and have taken steps in order to back those projections. Although Alabama has had similar objectives, they lack follow-up.
“Back in ‘91 there was a state mandate to increase our recycling to 25 percent, so 25 percent of our waste could be recycled. We’ve increased our waste by 52 percent, [so] we really aren’t achieving that goal,” says Gurganus.
Although the state does not have the best track record in terms of actively promoting sustainability, in recent years officials have made it easier for nonprofits to develop and implement local recycling plans. In 2008, Alabama added a dollar to state tipping fees, and 25 percent of those proceeds are awarded to organizations like Alabama Environmental Council. Gurganus says that UAB’s recycling center is a partner in their grant, and that the proceeds have allowed the university to purchase a number of recycling bins and even a recycling truck for pick-up.
UAB’s recycling center began effectively in spring of 2009, and Paolone says that the number of recycled goods has generally increased throughout the years. Although the facility is targeted toward the university, it’s open to the public and functions as a drop-off center for people living in the Southside area. His hopes for the recycling center are practical: he’d like to eventually start composting and would like to see the program expand its accepted materials.
On a personal level, though, he feels that sustainability isn’t only about saving what could be lost, but about using less in general. Ultimately, sustainable living entails a dynamic effort between individuals, businesses and states.
“Tackling this problems is definitely a two-prong thing,” says Paolone. “It needs to be societal and grassroots.”
The UAB Recycling Center is located at 620 11th St S. Drop-off hours are 6:30-8:30 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. on Mondays. Accepted material include #1 and #2 plastic bottles (sodas, energy drink, water bottles, milk or tea jugs and household chemical/detergent bottles), aluminum cans, paper, steel cans and used cooking oil/grease). For more information, click here.