Custodial Services

If it’s clean or dry, most materials could be recycled: plastic, metal, paper, cardboard and glass If it contains food, just clean it out and it can be recycled. If it contains liquid, just pour it out and it can be recycled. It’s your choice; make the green one!

On campus, we can recycle a lot more items than most places off campus. For instance, you can’t recycle milk cartons off campus, because it has a waxy outside, but you can recycle them on campus. All of campus housing is subject to UCI recycling rules.

UCI is a leader in sustainable waste management. In 2004, the campus only diverted 14% of the waste from landfill; in 2016, we diverted 81% through reducing, reusing, recycling, donating and composting. This means that only 19% of all campus waste goes to landfill.

The commingled bin is used to recycle all recyclable items such as plastic, glass, metals and paper. In 2016, we converted all of our “mixed paper only” bins to commingled recycling bins which consists of over 10,000 bins from offices and copy rooms.

Everything can be recycled as long as it is both clean and dry!

• Milk carton and pizza boxes: Yes they can at UCI!
• Plastic food containers: Yes just wipe off the food that is inside them.
• Egg cartons: Yes, if they are made of paper.
• Starbucks cups: Yes, once the drink is dumped out, you can put into commingle recycling bin.

Walk a bit further and look for the blue recycling bin. Recycling and landfill bins are placed almost everywhere on campus.

On UCI campus, the blue lid bins are ones for recycling. Remember, to be green, use blue.

You can call Facilities Management Service Desk at 949-824-5444.

Food waste is almost all compostable. This includes paper napkins, paper plates, coffee grounds, and coffee filters. Remember, whatever comes from nature goes back into nature.

Yes, food waste scraps are collected in the loading docks of Student Center, Aldrich Hall, and all dining facilities. Exterior compost collection bins are also in all on-campus housing communities. Each housing community received a compost bin to allow student residents to participate in the food composting program.

You may also use composting bins for your dorm or office, however, UCI does not service these personal bins. You need to take the material out to the exterior compost bins yourself. Exterior compost bins are the only bins Facilities Management empties on a regular basis.

For more information about getting a bin and how to maintain it, please contact the FM Service Desk (949-824-5444; fm-servicedesk@uci.edu).

Reusable bottles are a much more sustainable option than plastic bottles—it takes 3 liters of water to produce just 1 liter of bottled water!

Annually, UCI’s bottle filling stations save an average of 1.3 million plastic bottles! This means that 504,000 gallons of water is saved, and 37 tons of plastic is avoided!

Recycling is the Earth-friendly choice. Here at UCI, we save an average of 13,000 metric tons of material each year through our recycling program. Recycling is an integral component towards achieving sustainability!