Oklahoma State University places recycling bins at campus housing

Monday, October 5, 2015

Oklahoma State University received 90 recycling bins designed specifically for placement throughout all of the single student housing facilities on campus as part of a national recycling bin grant made possible by Keep America Beautiful and The Coca-Cola Foundation.

The bins will be placed in lounges, study rooms and lobby areas of OSU’s residence halls. The new bins will be a heavy plastic material that will hold up much better than the current containers.

OSU is one of 37 colleges and universities across the United States, and the only one in Oklahoma, to receive support from the Coca-Cola/Keep America Beautiful Recycling Bin Grant Program. An additional 52 grants are being awarded to non-collegiate locations that include non-profit organizations, local government agencies and other community groups. The 2015 grant program will award 5,300 recycling bins overall.

OSU Housing and Residential Life Operations Manager, John Moore said, “We are really excited because last year we started a single stream recycling program that launched our “ResLife Recycles” campaign in the residence halls.  It has really taken off. When we started, we were only able to purchase cardboard containers that served as a temporary solution. The new bins we will receive from KAB and Coca-Cola are going to be much sturdier and will help to further increase the benefits our residents receive from this program.”

“Through this program and our more than 50-year partnership with Keep America Beautiful, we are helping to ensure that communities understand the importance of recycling,” said Lori George Billingsley, vice president, community relations, Coca-Cola North America. “Community recycling not only impacts the environment today, but it helps build sustainable communities for the future.”

“Research has shown that convenience is a key factor in getting people to recycle,” said Brenda Pulley, senior vice president, recycling, Keep America Beautiful. “With Coca-Cola’s continued support, the recycling bins provided through the grant program create literally thousands of new opportunities for people to recycle in public areas across the country.”

Recipients were chosen by Keep America Beautiful based on criteria including the extent of their need, recycling experience and their ability to sustain the program in the future. Special outreach was made to colleges and universities through a partnership with the College and University Recycling Coalition, a membership organization serving campus recycling managers.  

The Coca-Cola/KAB Recycling Bin Grant Program awards recycling bins directly to recipients and leverages volume buying discounts. Since 2007, the program has placed more than 45,000 recycling bins in over 560 communities across the U.S. A full list of the spring 2015 Recycling Bin Grant recipients and further information about the grant program is available at http://bingrant.org.