Encouraging Recycling
A large campus (420 acres) with growing population of over 60,000 students with diverse activities requires enough bins in the right places to capture as much recyclable material as possible. We maintain 22 recycling locations across the campus. We have also removed individual wastebaskets from employee office spaces and replaced them with departmental waste baskets in order to discourage waste and increase recycling. Please call the work order number 817-272-2000 or use this link https://www.uta.edu/campus-ops/facilities/work-order-instructions.php to submit a request for recycle can?
Office of Sustainability collaborates with academic and administrative departments to find ways to increase recycling. The recycling program, supported by the Office of Facilities Management, accommodates paper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, printer cartridges, ink jet cartridges, scrap metal, oil, oil filters, photo fixer, fluorescent lamps, ballasts, batteries, alkaline batteries, and technotrash (CDs, DVDs, audio tapes, video tapes, and diskettes). The University adopted a Recycling Policy in 2011 to provide campus-wide recycling guidelines. Our recycling program has received several awards from the National Wildlife Federation and the Tarrant County Corporate Recycling Council.
Cell Phone Recycling
There are boxes on campus where items can be dropped off. Two are located in the University Center, while the others are in the Central Library, Maverick Activities Center, Davis Hall and Nedderman Hall
E-Waste Recycling
The use of electronic products has grown substantially in recent years, changing the ways in which we communicate, access information and entertain ourselves. Electronic waste, or e-waste, is a term for electronic products that have become unwanted, non-working or obsolete, and have essentially reached the end of their useful life. Obsolete electronic devices are rapidly filling the landfills of the globe. In the US alone, more than 100 million computers are thrown away with less than 20% being recycled properly. The EPA estimates as much as 60 million metric tons enter landfills every year. Most electronics that are improperly thrown away contain some form of harmful materials such as beryllium, cadmium, mercury and lead. These materials might be trace elements, but when added up in volume, the threat to the environment is significant. Besides adding harmful elements to the environment, improper disposal of e-waste is a recycling opportunity lost. We offer an E waste recycling program to the faculty, staff and students at UT Arlington to recycle the following items
- Electronic equipment
- Computer Equipment (Monitors, CRT’s, PC’s laptops, etc.)
- Test equipment
- Cell phones (batteries removed)
- Pagers (batteries removed)
- Palm pilots (PDA’d) (batteries removed)
- Digital cameras (batteries removed)
- Radios (batteries removed)
- Telecommunications equipment
- Sound and lighting equipment, including amplifiers, speakers, dimmers, control boards and interfaces and standard cabling related to
- Consumer home electronics (Stereo’s DVDNHS players, tuners, TV’s, etc.}
- Miscellaneous electronic equipment
- Alkaline batteries, lead acid batteries, NiM batteries and lithium batteries
- Printer I toner cartridges (for inkjet and laser printers)
- All electronic peripherals- Printers, Hard Drives (personal, not UT Arlington property), Floppy’s CD Rom’s DVD Drives, Printed Circuit Boards, Power Supplies, Zip Drivers, Jazz Drives, Smart cards, cable, wiring, IC’s – Integrated Circuits, Memory, Resistors, Capacitors
Please contact bhargavi.jeyarajah@uta.edu for information or special pick up.
Map of E-Waste containers across campus
3D Printing Waste Recycling
This university-wide 3D printing waste recycling program was initiated by Dr. Yiran (Emma) Yang in Sep. 2019, in collaboration with Dr. Yi Hong from Bioengineering Department and UTA Fab Lab. Dr. Yang is an Assistant Professor at Department of Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering, and the director of the Sustainable and Intelligent Manufacturing (SIGMA) Laboratory. This aim of this program is to enhance the environmental sustainability of 3D printing through highly-quality recycle/reuse of wastes that are in various forms and shapes. UTA faculties, staffs and students are welcome to donate their 3D printing wastes to designated recycling bins located at UTA Fab Lab (first floor of UTA library) and SIGMA Lab (ERB 188).
Acceptable wastes include, but are not limited to:
- Thermoplastic materials such as ABS, PLA, Nylon, etc. (Please check the recycling bins’ labels and make sure you put the correct materials into their designated bins)
- Unused feedstock, failed prints, end-of-life parts, support structures, or any other abandoned parts.
All collected wastes will be solely used for research purposes at SIGMA lab and UTA Fab Lab. If you are interested in joining us on research and/or outreach, please email Dr. Yang at yiran.yang@uta.edu. For more information, please check UTA library news https://libraries.uta.edu/news-events/blog/uta-libraries-partners-sigma-lab-recycle-3d-printing-materials.