photo by: Sylas May

The University of Kansas has an entire center devoted to sustainability, and multiple academic programs related to environmental stewardship.

What the university doesn’t have anymore is a comprehensive recycling program for two of its busiest locations — student unions and the dining centers that serve residence halls.

KU officials confirmed this week that they have suspended recycling operations at the university’s two student unions and the dining centers connected to residence halls. Recycling — other than basic cardboard — hasn’t been accepted at the locations since the beginning of the school year, and KU officials are making no promises that the services will return.

A KU spokeswoman said the recycling program had not been working well because it frequently was being foiled by a recurring issue. The culprit: Food waste that gets mixed with materials to be recycled.

Spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson said contamination rates — food residue ending up in the single-stream recycling containers — were greater than 30% at the Kansas Union dining locations, and 18% at the Mrs. E’s dining facility that is connected to residence halls at Daisy Hill.

“That meant that the materials were unable to go through the recycling process and ended up in the landfill,” Barcomb-Peterson said in a statement.

The recycling changes in the Kansas Union have not been limited to just the main dining area of the building. There are multiple bins throughout the building that previously were marked for recycling but now are marked with landfill stickers.

There are no plans to resume the recycling service this school year, and Barcomb-Peterson said it is uncertain that it will be available next school year.

“KU would like to resume single-stream recycling at these locations, but to do so the contamination issues will have to be resolved,” Barcomb-Peterson said.

In an interview with the Journal-World last week, KU Student Body President Sadie Williams said her office and KU Student Senate were working with KU to get the service restored for the next school year.

“Even though we have the status quo for this year, we don’t have to settle for it next year,” she said.

But in her interview with the Journal-World, Williams did not mention any problems that contamination was causing in the recycling program. Instead, she said it was her understanding that KU had a truck that was broken that was causing logistical problems with recycling collection, and that KU was having trouble filling one of three positions that collect materials from the recycling bins.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Bins once marked for recycling are now marked for the landfill in the Kansas Union, pictured in February 2023.

KU, in response to the Journal-World’s questions on Thursday, made no mention of the truck or employee issues. Instead, it cited the contamination issue as the main reason for the reduction in service.

When reached on Thursday by the Journal-World, Williams said the contamination issue was new information to her.

“That has not been presented to me,” Williams said.

The reduction in service comes at a time when KU Student Senate moved to reduce the student fee that is used to support recycling services on campus. At the beginning of the school year, the recycling fee was set at $3 per student, per academic year, down from $5.60 per student.

Williams, though, said that fee reduction shouldn’t be a factor in the reduced recycling services. She said Student Senate moved the fee reduction forward after seeing that the recycling services had healthy fund balances that could be spent on the service.

“They have ample excess funds to support that reduction,” Williams said.

KU, in its statement, did not specifically address whether the reduction in the student fee played any role in the reduction of service this school year. But it did indicate the funding issue could be a factor — along with solving the contamination problem — in whether the service is restored in future years.

“As we continue to seek alternative ways to fund the program, we are adjusting the level of recycling service to match the available funding,” Barcomb-Peterson said via email.

The issue has created a question of how much students should be directly responsible for funding the recycling program on campus. Students don’t pay an individual fee for the trash service that takes place on campus, for example. Barcomb-Peterson said students have been charged a fee for recycling because the campus recycling program started as a student initiative. She also noted that the program creates some specific costs to the university because KU does not have the option of letting the city of Lawrence do the recycling for it. The city does not offer a single-stream recycling service for commercial entities like KU.

Williams said she is not opposed to students paying a fee for recycling services on campus, but she said student leaders are proposing that the fee remain steady at $3. There are no plans to revert the fee to the previous $5.60 level. She said it would be fair for the university to pay for a portion of the recycling service out of its general budget.

“I am of the firm belief that sustainability efforts should be a shared focus across students, staff, faculty and administration,” she said via email. “I am hopeful that students will not always be the sole source of funding for recycling on KU’s campus.”

photo by: University of Kansas

Sadie Williams

KU said it didn’t have good information on how much additional material was being sent to the landfill now that the recycling program had been reduced. In its response, KU noted that comparisons are difficult given that the pandemic reduced activity at the union and dining halls in past years.

When asked whether KU leaders were concerned that the reductions in the recycling program sent a mixed message about KU’s commitment to environmental sustainability, Barcomb-Peterson said the university hoped people would remember that KU still has other recycling programs that are active.

“Single-stream recycling at dining locations in the unions and KU Housing is just one piece of bigger sustainability efforts across the campus,” Barcomb-Peterson said via email.

KU continues to have recycling bins in academic buildings and locations other than the unions and dining halls.

Williams, though, said that doesn’t change what should happen in the future at KU.

“I think it should be a priority of the university to bring recycling back to what it once was, and then surpass it,” she said.