Despite the city of Pittsburgh allowing many goods to be recycled via pickup, each dorm hall on Point Park’s campus has different rules on what can and cannot be recycled.
For instance, every dorm hall has spots to recycle paper and aluminum cans per floor, but cardboard cannot be recycled. Additionally, Academic Hall has a recycling bin at the entrance which also accepts plastic bottles, papers and aluminum cans. Lawrence Hall has a similar setup, albeit with a different style of bin.
Conestoga Hall, however, has no recycling options in the entire building. The residence hall once had a recycling bin for additional items in the lobby, but it was removed after refuse in the bin stopped being picked up.
Spencer Parks, a sophomore photography major, lives in Conestoga Hall and said there are no options throughout the building.
“There’s nothing for recycling,” Parks said. “Not even in the lobby, the entryway, nothing in the trash room where we throw away all our trash, there’s no options for recycling in Conestoga.”
If given the option, Parks said they would start recycling more items if the university expands what is accepted in campus recycling bins.
While there was a recycling bin in Conestoga Hall, it was also misused by students and filled with non-recyclable options. Additionally, Waste Management (WM) was not notified the recycling bin needed to be emptied until it was removed in 2023.
According to Vice President of Operations Chris Hill, WM picks up recycling from each dorm hall twice a week and takes it to the company’s recycling plant. The materials collected in each building are placed into WM containers outside each dorm building.
As for class buildings, each floor also has spots for aluminum and paper recycling, each with their own color-coded bins — blue for aluminum cans and plastic, green for paper. However, some buildings have green recycling bins with four slots on them, but the labels near the slots are so worn off they cannot be read.
One of the only green bins with readable labels is near the elevator lobby of Tower B at the Boulevard Apartments. That bin has labels for white paper only, paper, plastic and cans.
Even with differing bins, the options for recycling are limited. Point Park’s recycling policy includes a lengthy list of items which cannot be recycled on campus, such as drinking glasses, light bulbs, aluminum foil and various types of paper.
Inconsistencies exist in recycling bins, such as the bin on the first floor of the Boulevard Apartments, has separate compartments for white paper and one just labeled paper, however the recycling policy states that paper products beyond printer paper and newspaper cannot be recycled.
Hill said recycling bins could be added back to each dorm hall, including Conestoga. He said the bins were not used much when in the elevator lobby of each building.
While Point Park and every other university in Pittsburgh offers recycling, Chatham University has an additional bin outside its dining hall which offers recycling for phones, batteries and other e-waste.
According to Hill, e-waste recycling at Point Park could be possible.
“IT recycles lab and staff electronics now,” Hill said. “I think that Tim Wilson would be open to a conversation and consideration for this.”
