Did you know that we can recycle cardboard, electronics, glass, metals like aluminum, tin, and steel, paper products like white paper, newspapers, magazines, and cereal boxes, and plastics #1, #2, and #5? To see what number the plastic is, look for the number within the recycling logo usually at the bottom of product packaging. Ideally, please place empty, clean, dry items into the blue recycling bags or labeled recycling bins. If you don’t have access to a sink, at least, empty the recyclable. Muncie’s sorting facility can handle about 10% of contamination. If it is greater than that, the recycling load gets placed into trash. Electronics should be brought to the Tech center in Bracken Library. Ball State Landscape Services in Facilities composts leaves, grass clippings, brush, pallets/wood waste, and wood chips on campus.

Recycling can be a confusing topic since each geographic area accepts different items depending on the capabilities of its sorting machines and whether there is a re-sell market for the recycled item. Even if it takes a little extra effort, it is worth it and the right thing to do. Recycling and composting saves energy and water while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch; recycling plastic bottles saves 75% of the energy used and can be made into recycling containers like the ones you see in the Atrium and North Dining; and recycling paper saves 60% of energy. Composting at home enhances soil health, reduces the need for chemical amendments, and improves plant growth. Go to Muncie Sanitary District's website to learn more about recycling and composting at home. 

Below are a sampling of images depicting some of Ball State's efforts.

  • Construction project demolition recycling like the grinding of Irving Gym concrete into dense-graded aggregate for site use for the Jo Ann Gora Recreation and Wellness Building.
  • Reuse of structural frame in major building renovations to avoid landfill.  All materials were salvaged per LEED specifications.
  • Relocation and reuse of the Alumni House as the administrative headquarters of the Indiana Academy for Science Mathematics and Humanities

 

Lafollete Demo

Lafollette demolition.

Lafollete Recycling

Strategic material recovery.

Concrete Grinder

Concrete grinder.

Ground Concrete

Ground concrete for reuse.

Stack

Smoke stack removal.

Stack Collection

Stack material collection.

mulch

Grinding to create mulch for campus.

grinder

Concrete crusher/grinder.

aggregate

Aggregate from recycled concrete.

aggregate in use

Aggregate from recycled concrete in use.

Johnson Complex Before

Johnson Complex "Before".  Structural frame preserved during major renovation.

Johnson Complex After

Johnson Complex "After". Technique used on three dormitory renovations to date.