FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Thousands of students moved into their University of Arkansas residence halls this week, hauling tons of belongings, packed mostly in cardboard boxes. When the unpacking is done what remains are mountains of cardboard.

So each morning this week crews from the housing office were out early, breaking down those cardboard boxes and hauling them off to the university recycling center.

It’s the third year housing has run this recycling program.

“The housing staff is very involved in supporting green initiatives on campus”, said Randy Alexander, executive director of housing and student affairs auxiliary facilities. “Linda Campbell, associate director of residential facilities, and our custodial staff are the ones who take the lead for this program and they do an outstanding job staying ahead of the mountain of cardboard that comes to campus during fall check-in. It requires a great deal of advance planning to insure the smooth process that you see on move-in day.”

“Housing is doing a great job with this,” said Gary Enzor, who runs the campus recycling center for facilities management. “Since Sunday I think they’ve brought us about 10 tons of cardboard.”

The cardboard is loaded into a special truck so it can be compacted and then hauled off to sell to a recycling broker. Enzor said that there is actually a relatively good market for recycled cardboard.

“The progress we are making in the recycling process would not be possible without the initial efforts made by Linda Campbell, Randy Alexander and other housing staff members,” said Avery Minor, director of building services. “They deserve the credit for taking the time and effort to come up with a plan and put it into effect.”