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Office of Sustainability
University of Mississippi

How to Go Green: Recycling and Reducing Waste

A greener lifestyle is a lifestyle that creates less waste. These tips help you to start reducing the waste you produce and reduce the waste that enters the landfill by recycling.

Recycling

Recycling on campus
Each academic building and residence hall on campus has recycling bins for paper, plastics, and aluminum. E-waste can also be recycled on campus in certain locations.

The following products are collected for recycling by the University Physical Plant or Health & Safety Department:

  • Rechargeable batteries (Contact Health & Safety)
    • NiCad Batteries
    • Lead Acid and Lead-Gel Batteries
    • Mercury (button) Batteries
    • Lithium Batteries
  • Cell Phones, with or without chargers (Contact Health & Safety)
  • Mixed paper and cardboard (Contact Physical Plant)

Recycling in Oxford 
The City of Oxford offers curbside recycling pickup services, for those residents living within the city limits. For information about online sign up, visit Oxford Recycling’s page by clicking here. Residents may also bring products to the Oxford recycling centers. Oxford currently recycles the following products:

  • Paper: office paper, magazines, newspaper, junk mail, and non-corrugated boxes (i.e. cereal boxes)
  • Cardboard
  • Aluminum and steel cans
  • Plastic- #1 and #2 HDPE only. Check the container for these numbers.

For more information, visit http://www.oxfordms.net/departments/recycling.

Reducing Waste

Many products can be recycled, but we should also strive to generate fewer items that need to be disposed.

  • Packaging. Look at the whole product when deciding what to buy, including a product’s packaging. Try to buy products with packaging that is reusable, recyclable, and/or minimal. A good deal of energy goes into creating packaging that is often unnecessary and wasteful.
  • Recycled or remanufactured content. A product containing post-consumer recycled content or a remanufactured product may be greener than one solely composed of virgin
    materials. Purchasing products with recycled content helps to ensure there is a market for recycling.
  • Durability. Try to buy products that are durable, reusable, or refillable instead of disposable products when you can. Consider the long-term cost of replacing a product.
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