Nov. 30, 2009
Phonebook recycling deadline is Dec. 11
With the delivery of new phonebooks to campus, efforts also have begun to gather last year's editions -- ISU, Ames and Des Moines -- for recycling. The goal is to exceed the record-setting 16 tons of phonebooks collected last December.
Step 1: Into a box
Building supervisors, custodians and recycling volunteers are coordinating multiple drop-off zones in each building and providing cardboard boxes for collection. The collection period runs through Friday, Dec. 11, when custodians and volunteers will move the boxes of used phonebooks to one of 80 designated outdoor pick-up sites, frequently building loading docks. The boxes should be outside and in a visible location. If your building is not one of the 80 designated spots on the route, you're asked to coordinate your collection efforts with a nearby building that is.
Step 2: To a loading dock and onto the truck
Campus services staff will collect the boxes the week of Dec. 14 and deliver them to International Paper in Des Moines for recycling.
Kelly McCool, a program coordinator in facilities planning and management and member of the ISU recycling committee, said the university receives about $25 per ton for the old phonebooks. More notable is what the university isn't paying -- about $85 per ton -- to drop them off as trash at the Ames Resource Recovery Plant.
