NT's waste management manager wants to eliminate outsourcing waste disposal and instead have the university sort and bale its own waste, sending it directly to manufacturers. The plan would divide waste into wet and dry streams, with the dry paper products sorted on a conveyor belt and baled. The manager hopes to implement the plan in conjunction with NT's environmental science program by having students do the sorting. This would allow the university to receive a higher price per ton by baling its own large waste shipments. It could help pay for equipment needed and reduce the $60,000-$70,000 annually paid to the city to dispose of waste. The manager believes it is time for the recycling program to be expanded with more involvement

1. Recyclers want to step up NT's program, include students
of environmental science
By Kelly Kosikowski
Daily Reporter
Within a few years, NT may have a "Dumpsterless campus," Lanse Fullinwider, grounds
and waste service manager, said Monday.
The waste management strategy plan would eliminate the middle man, making NT sort
and bale its own waste and send it directly to the manufacturer. The waste would then be
divided into two groups: wet stream and dry stream. The wet stream would include
plastic, aluminum, and waste trash, such as bathroom trash. The dry stream would be all
paper products and material.
The two streams would be taken into a double-bodied truck, keeping the wet and dry
streams separate, to a material recycling facility. The dry waste, carried in blue bags,
would be put on a conveyer belt and sent to be sorted. Then it would be put on a different
conveyer belt and sent to a baler. The wet waste would not be sorted on a conveyer belt.
Fullinwider said he hopes to run the conceptual waste management plan in conjunction
with NT's environmental science program by having environmental education students do
the sorting.
Duane Roberts, head of housing maintenance, is eager to get the plan started.
"The more we pitch in, the more trees we'll save," Roberts said.
By baling its own waste, NT would receive a higher price per ton. The shipment of large
quantities would help pay for equipment and other necessities. Fullinwider said he hopes
to utilize grants for the disadvantaged and students to help fund the plan.
NT recycled 390 tons of waste in the 1997-98 fiscal year, receiving about $12,000, he
said. This was a decrease of 68 tons from the 1994-95 fiscal year, when NT reached its
maximum recycling amount in eight years.
About 80 percent of "Dumpster trash" can be recycled, Fullinwider said. Reducing the
paper, plastic, and aluminum that is not recycled would allow NT to pay less money to
the landfills. He said he believes this would tremendously reduce the amount of money
NT pays the city of Denton.
Fullinwider said NT pays Denton between $60,000 and $70,000 yearly to dispose of
waste. The price is determined according to the number of truck loads disposed of, he
said.
The recycling program was initiated in January 1990. A six-month study was done to
decide what was best for NT, and administration officials provided a $13,000 grant to
start a recycling program. Six months later, in January 1991, the program started in five

2. buildings. By the end of the year all major buildings, excluding residence halls, were
included. Housing does its own recycling.
To man the new recycling program, employees were "borrowed" from the grounds
department. There are two employees who collect a ton of material a day. This is twice
the man power the program started out with.
Fullinwider said he believes it is time for the recycling program to step to the next level.
"I realistically can't educate everyone, which needs to be done," he said.