So, once you've finished that meal at the Commons, what do you do with that stuff that's left?  The box, the cup, the utensils and wrappers?

The Commons has recently installed new waste containers that have color coded tops with corresponding labels on header boards.  

• Green is for compostables
• Blue is for glass/plastic and cans.
• Navy blue is for clean paper (no food stuff).
• Black is for landfill, you know, the stuff you call trash. Trash or things that can not be recycled end up in the landfill.

Here are your four choices:

Compostables (Green label) = food scraps, white and green Pepsi cups, clear Greenware cups, soiled paper such as napkins, greasy pizza boxes, paper plates . Outtakes, Fresh Fusions and Wild Greens provide compostable ware = take out containers, utensils, soup cups, and salad containers.

Glass Plastic and Cans (blue labels)= glass bottles and jars , aluminum cans , steel cans

Paper (sky blue with navy blue letters labels ) clean paper only , paper board(gray cardboard) newspapers and paper bags. By separating paper, we are able to make money for more recycling and reduce contamination!

Landfill (Black Label) = Trash = Styrofoam , candy and protein bar wrappers, potato chip bags and the like. Trash anything not recyclable. Not all plastics are made equal- sadly, plastic utensils, straws, lids and shrink wrap are not made to be recycleable.

What happens to the Compostables? Food scraps, soiled paper and compostable cups are stored in a dumpster at The Commons and True Grits where it is picked up frequently . Waste Neutral, a contractor hauls compostable materials to a commercial composting facility. In return, the University receives finished compost- decomposed plant material transformed into fertile soil!  Composted soil from this process has been used on campus at the dining hall herb garden and the historical sign planting on Giffen Hill . UMBC Composted over 168000 lbs. of material in 2012. Composting began on campus thanks to the work of the SGA in collaboration with many campus partners and contracters.

We separate our recycling to save resources by reducing contamination- with Dual stream or target recycling . This method of separating recycling commodities supports funding recycling education and events.