How to Recycle on Campus

The main U of I campus uses single-stream recycling, just like the curb-side totes in Moscow. 

Accepted Materials

• Plastic #1: clear bottles and jugs with screw tops
• Plastic #2: cloudy and color bottles and jugs with screw tops
• Aluminum cans
• Tin cans
• Corrugated cardboard*
• Boxboard cereal and dry food boxes
• Brown paper bags and paper towel cores
• Mixed Paper: Newspaper, magazines, junk mail, office paper, index cards, phone books and envelopes

All items must be clean, rinsed and dry.

*Custodians will collect larger pieces of cardboard from hallways and other common areas and take it to the exterior bins. Custodians will also collect clearly marked cardboard from office and other workspaces to the exterior cardboard recycling bins.

Contaminating Materials

• Any #3, #4, #5, #6 or #7 plastics
• Soiled food or beverage items of any kind
• Hot and cold coffee cups
• Pizza boxes
• Wet paper or cardboard
• Paper towels, plates, napkins or tissues
• Glass
• Plastic bags
• Styrofoam
• Plastic plates or utensils
• Plastic clamshell food containers
• Food wrappers 
• Wax-coated cardboard or paper
• Batteries 
• Electronics
• Aluminum foil

When in doubt, throw it out!

Consequences of Contamination

Any non-recyclable material or soiled accepted materials are considered contamination. One contaminated item can affect an entire bin of clean recyclables. Contaminated recycling is treated as solid waste (regular trash) and is brought to the landfill.

The most common forms of contamination are food and beverage items or recyclables with food residue. Plastic bottles and aluminum cans must be empty and mostly dry. Cardboard or paper food packaging cannot be recycled after being used. Most coffee cups, paper or plastic are not made of accepted materials and cannot be recycled (they are either the wrong type of plastic or wax-coated paper).

High contamination levels lead to more materials going to the landfill and can ultimately result in the recycling program's cancellation.