Recycling At Montana Tech

Looking for a place to drop that empty plastic water bottle? Emptying out all those papers in your binder from last semester? These items and much more don’t have to go into the trash can; Montana Tech has several recycling bins and locations available on campus. 

Just this year Montana Tech won a national recycling logo contest which provided $5,000 worth of good quality bins through Busch System and a month later Tech received a grant for 32 new recycling bins through “Keep America Beautiful” and Coca Cola. Pepsi also donated eight Pepsi bottle bins for plastics and cans. Securing these awards grants happened because of hard work from Montana Tech’s recycling committee. 

Currently, Montana Tech collaborates with AWARE Butte, Recycling, a local non-profit organization that employs the handicapped to sort recycling materials to go to market. They provide one or two 55-gallon bins for each building on campus. Custodians deliver their building’s recycling to these larger bins, and each Thursday, Butte Recycling picks it up for sorting and distribution.

Bins are located throughout campus and they come in a few different colors. Smaller light blue bins are located throughout the buildings on campus and larger green trash can sized bins are located near the entrances of each building on campus. There are larger gray bins outside in the area between the Science and Engineering Building and the Student Union Building. If you are looking to recycle things from your home, there are two large recycling “dumpsters” in the library parking lot that you can place items in to. 

Don’t let the efforts of the recycling committee go to waste. Recycling on campus is just as easy as throwing trash away, so look for the blue recycling bins! Items that can be recycled on campus include: 

Paper

  •Office Paper 

  •Shredded Paper (bagged only)

  •Envelopes 

  •Junk Mail

  •Magazines

  •Newspapers

  •Books (phone, bound) 

Cardboard

  •Please flatten cardboard boxes yourself 

  •Leave flattened cardboard behind bin 

  •

Put flattened cardboard inside the bins 

     at the Library parking lot

Aluminum Cans

  •Aluminum (empty cans only)

Plastic

  •#1 (PETE) – Water, Juice, Soda Bottles (empty)

  •#2 (HDPE) – Clear Milk Jugs (rinse thoroughly)

  •#2 Solid through #7 (rinse thoroughly)

Items NOT accepted include:

  •Glass (safety issue with handicapped       workers)

  •

Coated Paper, Boxes, Cartons

(waxed, foiled)

  •Wrapping and Construction Paper

  •Kleenex, Napkins, Paper Towels, Toilet Paper, Diapers

  •Waxed Drink Cups (pop, coffee)

  •Styrofoam (cups, food boxes)

  •Non-Plastic Milk/Juice Cartons (waxed)

  •Food and/or Wrappers

  •Appliances and Electronics

  •Pots, Pans, Tin or Steel Cans

  •Metals

  •Rocks