Texas School Recycling Guide Page: 3
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outdoor trash containers. To keep
out unwanted materials, lock your
containers at night. This practice
will hold down disposal costs and
ensure that you have an accurate
picture of your waste-manage-
ment program.
A simple audit form, partially
completed, might look something
like the table on page 2.
Contact Collectors of
Recyclable Materials
Contact your city or county solid-
waste department to determine the
types of recycling services, if any,
that are available to schools in your
area. The city might be willing to
pick up your recyclables or connect
you with a commercial collector.
Your school district may have
trucks or buses that could transport
recyclables from several schools
to a single location to reduce com-
mercial collection charges. Another
option is to identify a recycler
on your own.You may also want
to look for commercial recycling
collectors. They can usually be
found in theYellow Pages under
the listings for "Recycling Centers,"
"Scrap Metals,"and"Waste Paper."
Some questions you may want to
ask are:
+ Which materials do they collect?
" What is the cost of collection?
+ What grades or types of paper
do they accept? (Have them
explain grades if it is not clear.)
+ Will they pay you for materi-
als picked up at your school?
If so, how much? (Generally,
collectors pay by the pound
or the ton.)
+ What condition should the
materials be in, and how should
they be prepared (for example,
cardboard flattened, white
paper only, tops off containers)?
+ Is a minimum volume or weight
required for each pickup?
+ Will they provide pickups on
a fixed schedule, or as needed?I
+ Will they supply collection
containers? If so, at what cost?
+ Will they sign a contract for
the recycling service? (One-
year contracts with an option
to renew for a second year are
most common.)
+ Will they help you organize
and promote the program?
There is no such thing as a
truly free collection service. Some
companies will provide contain-
ers and collection service at no
charge, if the value of the material
collected exceeds the cost of the
service. Problems can arise if the
market value of the material falls
below the service cost, and the
school may face either unexpected
service charges or a loss of the
program. To avoid this situation,
schools are encouraged to do all of
the following:
+ Ask the collector to calculate
the cost of the collection
services.
+ Get a quote on the current
market value of each material
to be collected.
+ Consider entering into a
service agreement that
honors established
costs for at least a
full school year.
You may need to deal
with several vendors if no
single vendor can handle
all the types of materials
you are collecting.
Through your waste
audit and your discus-
sions with commercial
recyclers, you should
gain insight into which
materials are the most
beneficial to recycle.
To keep things simple,
you may want to start out
by recycling one or two
basic materials. Once your pro-
gram is running smoothly,
you can expand it to include
other materials.The landfill disposal rate for
Texas for 2009 was 7.1 pounds
per person per day. This equals
over 1 ton per person per year.
- TCEQ, Municipal Solid Waste
in Texas: FY 2009, AS-187/10
Commercial waste, which
includes waste from schools,
institutions, and businesses,
makes up 35 to 45 percent of
municipal solid waste.
- EPA3
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Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Texas School Recycling Guide, book, July 2011; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth577058/m1/5/: accessed March 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.