While the Slippery Rock Recycling Program recycles a wide variety of materials, currently the program is focused on taking the following materials out of the university's waste stream: office paper, newspaper, magazines, cans, glass, and plastics. In order to make recycling easier for everyone these main materials are collected in three categories: OFFICE PAPER, NEWSPAPER & MAGAZINES, and CANS, GLASS, & PLASTICS.

Office Paper

The Debate about Recycled Paper

Many people still believe that paper made with recycled content does not look as good, or perform at the same, level as virgin paper, While this may have been true in the past, technological changes in the late 1980s and 1990s have brought recycled paper up to the same standards as virgin paper in all respects, including copy ability, brightness, moisture content archival quality, etc.

Appearance

While some recycled papers with 100% recycled content will not be bright white and may contain flecks, this is not true for copy paper which meets the minimum federal and state recycled content standards of 20% post-consumer content. If you doubt this fact put together a packet of several, recycled paper sheets from the state contract with several virgin sheets and ask a friend or office mate to tell you which ones are the recycled papers (make sure you keep track!). Nine times out of ten, recycled paper will be indistinguishable from the virgin and people will not be able to tell them apart.

Performance

Perhaps the largest concern about recycled paper has to do with its performance in copy machines and laser printers. Blaming copy machine jams on recycled content is a common refrain in offices and among technicians. However, the Operational Services Division has conducted ongoing research into this matter and determined.that copy paper should work as well as virgin paper in virtually all types of machines. Here are some tips to help guide you through the process of addressing copy machine jams.

• Copy paper has a right side up (look for the arrow on the wrapper) and should be placed in machines according to the instructions, otherwise jamming may result whether or not the paper is recycled.

• If paper is left out of its wrapper on a table or desk for any extended period (even overnight) it will gather dust and moisture, especially if it is humid, leading to jams. Make sure all paper ream contents are placed side machines after they are opened.

• Some machines may require the removal of the top, and bottom sheets of each ream Since these sheets may be contaminated with glue from the paper,wrapper (do not forget to recycle them).

• Some copy papers may work differently in different machines., If you are having trouble with a specific copy paper, do not blame all recycled papers, but try another brand. That is why there are five different copy papers on state contract.

• Do not let your copy machine technician tell you that recycled paper will void warranties and does not, work in your machine. This is just not true. Ask your technician to adjust your machine if you"are having trouble with your recycled paper. The new Commonwealth contract for copy machines forbids technicians from blaming recycled paper for machine problems and requires that machines be able to accept all paper on state contract. No vendor has raised any concerns about these provisions.

Glass Containers

Common Materials that contaminate cullet

1. Ceramic cups, plates and pottery

2. Clay garden pots

3. Laboratory glass

4. Crystal and opaque drinking glasses

5. Heat-resistant ovenware

6. Lead collars from wine and champagne bottles

7. Stones and dirt

8. Light bulbs

9. Metal caps, lids and neck ring

10. Ceramic and wire caps for beer or wine

11. Drinking glasses

12. Hazardous glass containers-acid containers

13. Mirrors, windshields and window glass

14. Excess moisture.

*****Ceramic is the most common contaminant*****

Glass Facts

America's Oldest Industry

In the 1600's, glass was an expensive luxury item in England. British manufacturers could not meet demand, and few Englishmen had mastered the painstaking art of glass-blowing. What's more, expansion of the industry was limited due to the depletion of the forest wood needed for fuel.

To the London Company of Virginia, this seemed like an opportunity. Recruiting some Polish and Dutch glassmakers, they established a primitive glass factory at their American colony of Jamestown in 1608. With the abundant natural resources of the New World, they believed that glass products manufactured in Virginia could be exported to Europe and sold for less than those coming from Italy and elsewhere.

Alas, it did not happen. Though the factory began making product, believed to be bottles, window glass and drinking glasses, it failed during the "Starving Time" following the autumn of 1609 when sixty of Jamestown's five hundred settlers died.

A later effort, in 1621, to revive glassmaking, was even less successful. The glass house blew down, there was an Indian attack, and the glassmakers suffered sickness and even death. The second attempt ended in 1624, possibly without having ever produced any glass.

Despite this inauspicious start, glassmaking developed into a stable industry during the colonial period and examples of this early ware are now prized collector's items. What's more, you could say that the third attempt at glassmaking on the Virginia peninsula did succeed; today a modern glass container plant near Williamsburg is just a few miles from the original site of the colonists' early efforts.

If you visit Jamestown, Virginia, you will see an operating recreation of the early glassmaking facility, developed with the assistance of the Glass Packaging Institute. And, yes, early glassmakers did recycle!

Glass in Roadways and Runways

Since 1993, the City of Allentown, Pennsylvania, has used 120,000 tons of "glassphalt" to pave its streets. The program has been such a success that in 1997 almost 100% percent of the city's roadway material will include post-consumer glass.

Director of Public Works Neal Kearn admits that there was initial skepticism about using glass in a roadway wearing course, but when they observed the results in a test section at the municipal garage it allayed all fears. The glassphalt held up even under the heavy truck traffic entering that busy facility .

"It's very important to work with a glass processor to get the glass to its proper graduation of 3/8-inch or less," Kearn notes. Allentown used the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation specification, placing ten percent glass in the mixture.

"Last fall, we held a roundtable of the city's paving gurus to determine whether to continue with glassphalt or not," Kearn says. "It was unanimous to continue with and increase the program. Our track record speaks for itself. If we were having problems, we wouldn't have included it for 100 percent of this year's road material."

Meanwhile, in Missouri, the Rolla Downtown Airport recently paved its 3000-foot runway with glassphalt. The glass is believed to make the runway more visible for landings and the runway is striped with reflective paint which also includes ground waste glass.

Tests made by the Missouri Department of Transportation show the runway has exceptionally high skid resistance. Dr. Delbert Day of the University of Missouri, Rolla, pioneered the concept of recycling glass into road material.