How the MSU Recycling Center is leading the way in campus sustainability

• Video shows a tour of MSU's Recycling Center.
• Each year, six million pounds of waste is picked up across MSU's campus and processed within the MSU Recycling Center.
• "We've cut the amount of trash into landfill per student by 66%", exclaimed Hewitt.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

I'm your neighborhood reporter, Lauren Lendzion.

Each year, six million pounds of waste gets picked up across MSU's campus and gets processed right here at the MSU Recycling Center. I'll take you behind the scenes on how that process works to keep that waste out of landfills.

With another day, comes another dump of campus waste at the MSU Recycling Center, "We're recycling. We're collecting. But, we're making a product and the product are those 1,500 pound cubes," explained MSU Recycling Center Operations Coordinator, Christopher Hewitt.

From paperback books, to plastic bottles.

The making of reusable goods begins with the sorting of the waste, "We'll take it up to the sort line, and once it gets up to the sort line that's where we have students who work five days a week to sort out those materials," said Hewitt.

Once the items have made their way to the conveyor belt, it needs to get into the correct bin.

That's where MSU students get a major helping hand, "The robot's primary job is to help sort bottles, and ideally, in the end here, only trash falls off," explained Hewitt.

The sorted waste then makes its final stop where it's packaged and prepped into bales to be shipped out for re-use, "It spits out and automatically ties it up, and they are solid blocks," said Hewitt.

All, for a greater mission, "We've cut the amount of trash into landfill per student by 66%", exclaimed Hewitt.

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