UA Recycling Program is Finalist for Best Practices Award

TUSCALOOSA, ALA. – The recycling program at The University of Alabama has been selected as one of five finalists in the 2010 Southern Association of College and University Business Officers Best Practices competition.

As a finalist, UA will have the opportunity to showcase its best practice at a special session at the SACUBO annual meeting in April.

“The success of our recycling program means that everyone on campus is helping make a difference. We’re very excited to represent the UA community by presenting at the upcoming SACUBO meeting,” said Tony Johnson, director of logistics and support services at UA.

All of the finalists are winners and will be recognized at the meeting’s awards luncheon, with one being named the grand finalist. The grand winner’s home institution will receive a $1,500 honorarium and each of the four other finalists’ institutions will receive a $750 honorarium.

During fiscal year 2008-2009, UA collected 885.8 tons of recyclables, an increase of more than 86 percent over the previous record of 475 tons recycled in 2007-2008. The amount of cardboard, alone, recycled on campus increased by more than 97 percent that year. Office paper is the most recycled item on campus, with 559,680 pounds of it collected during the latest fiscal year.

Johnson credits this growth to increased awareness of the recycling program on campus as well as the expansion in the types of items UA recycles. Newly added recyclable items include wood, grease, electronics, light bulbs and mattresses.

“We are diverting a large amount of material from the landfill because of student, faculty and staff involvement in the program,” Johnson added.

SACUBO was founded in 1928 to inform higher education institutions in the Southern region of the country about issues that affect higher education. The purpose of the association is to foster, develop and promote improved principles and efficient practices in the business and financial management of colleges and universities.