Challenge of the Week

Avoid generating trash. Try to use only recyclable and reuseable materials.

• Use plastic water bottles for filling with water and freezing to use as an ice pack
• We donate our old magazines to a local shelter that uses them for therapy sessions in making collages
• We take home the shipping boxes that come to us to reuse as pet beds, recycle bins, & storage
• We use old business cards as labels for binders and dividers
• We double side print and use other side for scratch paper when possible
• We try to not print if not necessary & save our documents on a hard drive
• Many of us turn off our computers every night before leaving
• We turn off lights in the store room, conference room, & bathrooms when not in use
• We recycle, reuse out to date paperwork by cutting into small scratch paper
• We have recycle bins for paper, batteries, toner, plastic, Cd's, & electronics
• In book binding, useless book covers are cut up and reused for boards
• We have desk-side recycling boxes at each desk for recycling
• We use mugs to store pens/pencils, paperclips, & candy
• We change the margins on documents before printing to create less printing pages
• We are taking steps to reduce unsolicited mail from vendors we don't use
• We reuse envelopes for interoffice and campus mail
• We print directly on envelopes instead of using labels
• We purchase recycled products whenever available