University Housing Launches Recycling Pilot With PepsiCo Help

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Residential students in Hotz Honors and Yocum Halls will receive a reusable bag to promote recycling in the halls.

University Housing is partnering with PepsiCo on a pilot sustainability program that will take place in two of the university's on-campus residence halls.

This pilot program will start in early November and continue through the end of the academic year.

Each student room in Hotz Honors Hall and Yocum Hall will receive a bag for recyclable items. Items that can be recycled include paper, plastic bottles and cans.

Each Thursday evening, student volunteers will collect, weigh and sort all recyclables. Students who volunteer for this program can win great prizes.

There is a need to recruit multiple student volunteers since the program will run until the end of the school year. Students will increase their chances to earn prizes with each shift.

"University Housing is excited about the partnership with PepsiCo and hopeful that with the help of students in the halls and volunteers, students feel incentivized to continue recycling," Takama Statton-Brooks, director for residence education said.

"Our goal with this is to engage residents in becoming more sustainability conscious, and what better way to do this than with a friendly competition among two halls."

There are currently recycling containers in each residence hall building, but not in each student room. The pilot allows the university to capture a baseline for the volume of recyclables collected from each building.

The program also allows University Housing to encourage sustainable practices among residential students.

PepsiCo has partnered with 103 colleges and universities on sustainability initiatives since 2010. This means that approximately 13.8 million bottles and cans have been collected on these campuses to date and more than $70,000 provided to these schools by PepsiCo to support sustainability efforts across the country.