Recycling Operations Center

TheÌýRecycling Operations CenterÌý(ROC) is an intermediate step in the recycling process between campus buildings and the end markets for recycling. The goal of the ROC is to sort everything to its best potential so that materials are recycled to their highest and best use, reducing the need for using virgin resources to make products.Ìý Since these materials are sorted to such a high quality, they can be sold to end markets and generate revenue to help offset the cost of collection and processing. The building where the ROC is located is hidden in plain sight, next to the CU events center and across from the Engineering Center.

The Recycling Center as we know it today has continued to evolveÌýsince 1991.Ìý

Grounds & Recycling Operations Center (GROC) 2015-Present

In the summer of 2015, the brand new Grounds and Recycling Operations Center began operations on the CU campus.

The Grounds and Recycling Operations Center (GROC) is a shared CU Facilities Management building between CU Grounds and CU Solid Waste and Recycling. The Recycling Operations Center (ROC) is a joint operation between CU Facilities Management (FM) and CU Student Government/Environmental Center (E-Center). The purpose of the facility is to allow a place to process discarded materials collected on campus that can be reused, repurposed or recycled to the highest and best use.

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SL: Recycling Process

CU Student recycling

Step 1: Acceptable items go in the correct bin

University of Colorado students, faculty and staff throw their recyclable itemsÌýinto recycling bins across campus.Ìý

Facilities Management Crews unload full Recycling Poly-Carts

Step 2: Materials Collections

Facilities Management recycling crewsÌýcollect recyclables from bins across campusÌýand deliver them to the Grounds and Recycling Operations Center

A student worker loads the dumper

Step 3: The Dumper

The bins are loadedÌýinto a hydraulic dumper where they are raisedÌýand slowly tiltedÌýso that the materials spread across a conveyor belt.Ìý

A student worker organizes bins of special materials recycling

Step 5: Special Materials

During the sorting process, hard-to-recycle materialsÌýthat are contaminants in regular recycling are pulled out and organized into special bins to be dealt with directly. These include: batteries, electronics, CDs and many other miscellaneous items.Ìý

A student worker weighs a full tip cart of recycling

Step 6: The Weigh In

Processed recycled materials are weighedÌýto ensure accurate accounting ofÌýthe campus diversion rate.ÌýTheseÌýmetrics are used later to determineÌýhow much material has been diverted from landfills each year.

A student worker dumps the contents of a full tip cart into a "roll off" bin

Step 7: The Tipping Floor

Sorted materials are then taken to the tipping floor to be dumped into large roll-off truck beds.

A Roll Off and Truck at the GROC export dock

Step 8: The Shipment

Once they are filled with sorted recyclables,the roll-offs are shipped to the localÌýMaterials Recycling Facility (MRF) where some materials are bailed directly for resale and some are sorted once againÌýin preparation to be sold to marketÌýand turned into new materials.

Temporary Intermediate Processing Facility (TIPF) 2014-2015

The Temporary Intermediate Processing Facility was a temporary structure built to support CU Recycling Operations in the transitional time period between the demolition of the old IPF sorting facility and the construction of the new GROC facility.

From May 2014 to JuneÌý2015, the TIPF served as the stepping-stone that allowed CU recycling to maintain operations on campus. As construction of the GROC was underway, student recyclers worked through the winter, continuing to sort through campus recyclables, helping to maintain campus diversion rates even as the University of Colorado Grounds and Recycling waited for a permanent home for recycling operations.Ìý

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Intermediate Processing Facility | 1991-2014

The Intermediate Processing Facility was established as the campus recycling sorting facility in 1991.

Like the new Recycling Operations Center, the IPF served as an intermediate step between campus recycling bins and the local Boulder County Recycling Center, which connects recyclable materials to the commercial marketplace for reuse.Ìý For 23 years, students worked at the IPF sorting, weighing, and shipping recyclablesÌýcollected from locations all over campus. Throughout the lifespan of the IPF, up to 10,000 pounds of recyclables were processed at the IPF each day. In the spring of 2014, the IPF was demolished in anticipation of the new ROC, signaling an end of an excellent era of recycling, but also signifying an exciting expansion of CU campus recycling operations.

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