Destinations and Vendors for UMass Recyclables
Materials:
Destinations:
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Commodity: |
Ballasts from Fluorescent Lighting |
All PCB's are separated and incinerated as per federal regulations. The remaining metals are cleaned, categorized and baled. These metals are sold to various smelters.
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Commodity: |
Batteries |
Alkaline batteries are ground and processed to make steel. Any mercury is reclaimed by Onyx on site. Nickel and Cadmium are sent to other companies for refinement. Lithium batteries are deactivated and then landfilled. All lead batteries are sent to a lead smelter and silver oxide batteries are refined and recycled at a different facility. Battery acid is either neutralized and used as a feed stock in dry wall production, or used as the neutralizer in caustic reactions.
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Commodity: |
Books |
Books are packed into over-seas shipping containers. Hands Across the Water identifies areas of the world where there is a need for books and arranges for delivery. UMASS books have been sent to Afghanistan, Caribbean nations and African Nations.
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Commodity: |
Concrete and Black top |
These materials are processed into an aggregate that is used as a base layer in roads and parking lots.
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Commodity: |
Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTS) and Other Electronics |
CRT's are dismantled, the metal is recycled and leaded glass is recycled into new leaded glass for televisions and monitors. Mixed electronics are evaluated for salvage parts or recycled for scrap metal. Circuit boards are ground up and run through a chemical bath that separates metals by specific gravity.
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Commodity: |
Fly Ash |
Fly ash is used a bulking agent to dry and physically stabilize sludge bio solids prior to landfilling. The materials can also be used as an odor control media in composting operations.
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Commodity: |
High Grade Paper |
Automated sorts and bales the paper, before sending it to paper mills such as Erving and Cascade. One of the end uses of the paper is tissue.
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Commodity: |
Light and Heavy Iron and Steel, Copper, Brass |
R&R takes most metals, removes contamination, sorts by type, and cuts up the metal before sending it to metal shredders. After shredding, the metal is either baled for shipment to overseas markets or sent to various metal smelters. Freedman takes primarily wire, strips any casing and recycles the metals in manner similar to R&R.
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Commodity: |
Magnetic Media |
The materials are separated by type either sent over seas for recycling or recycled into new plastics products domestically.
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Commodity: |
Leaves, Yardwaste, Animal Bedding |
Organic wastes like animal bedding from the horse farm, greenhouse waste, leaves and yard waste from campus are composted at the WRTF. Materials are mixed together and turned with a bucket loader to promote the composting process. Finished compost is screened annually. Much of the finished product is used on campus by Landscape Services for applications in planting beds, lawns, and as mulch. The rest of the compost is sold to the public by the cubic yard or in four-gallon buckets that are collected from the dining halls.
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Commodity: |
Mixed Containers |
Mixed containers are separated by material type: steel, glass, aluminum, and plastics. The plastics are further separated by resin type and glass is separated by color. The sorted materials are then baled or otherwise densified for shipment to mills. PET bottles are processed and used for items like fleece and carpeting, milk cartons can be turned into plastic lumber, glass can be used for road fill or new glass and the metals are recycled into new metal products.
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Commodity: |
Mixed Paper |
Waste paper is sorted at the MRF and sent to mills. The processing steps for making paper from paper involves creating a slurry, draining, pressing then drying to make a new paper product. There are great differences in the configuration of the machinery in this process depending on what is being made. Recyclable paper end-uses are highly sensitive on market forces so any given paper could be made into products ranging from office paper to tissue paper to cereal boxes, depending on market conditions.
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Commodity: |
Corrugated Cardboard |
We bale cardboard at the IPF, which is then marketed primarily to Canada and overseas by IRN. Most cardboard is turned into new cardboard boxes. When the market for corrugated to corrugated recycling is weak, it is used as part of the feed stock in poster board production.
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Commodity: |
Tires |
Tires are shredded and burned for fuel in paper mills and cement factories. They are also ground and used as fill in civil engineering projects like roadbed construction.
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Commodity: |
Toner Cartridges |
Cartridges are opened, cleaned, and repaired when necessary. They are then refilled with ink and resold as refurbished cartridges. Unusable cartridges are salvaged for parts or recycled as metal and plastic.
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Commodity: |
Fluorescent Light Tubes |
Light tubes are processed under negative air pressure in a machine which separates mercury-phosphate powder, glass and the aluminum ends. Each material is then recycled.
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Commodity: |
Food Waste |
Food waste is collected from 9 campus dining facilities and consolidated in a compactor at the WRTF. It is shipped weekly to the Smith farm site where it is mixed with other organic materials and composted. Finished compost is screened and used at the farm fields or sold to the public for use in gardens and lawns.
| © 2006 University of Massachusetts Amherst. Site Policies. This site is maintained by the Department of Waste Management. Design by Team Cahill |
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