Recycling at the Post Office & Package Lockers

Sending mail and shipping packages generates quite a bit of recyclable waste. Not to worry, Rethink Waste has you covered, both at the Post Office and at the two package locker locations on campus.

POST OFFICE

The campus post office is set up and ready to go for all of your mail and shipping waste needs.

• The campus post office is set up with standard landfill and single-stream recycling bins.
• There are two large blue bins, specifically for cardboard. Please remember to break down your cardboard boxes before leaving them in these bins. Please remove all bubble wrap or air pillows from cardboard boxes.
• There is a box for plastic film collection. Please place all bubble wrap, air pillows, bubble mailers, plastic wrappings, etc. in this collection box.

Cardboard is recyclable, but packing materials may not be. See above for guidelines on plastic film.

Cardboard is recyclable. Genuinely, certifiably, break-it-down-and-make-it-new-again recyclable. It's a material with its life together.

The bubble wrap and air pillows riding inside it are not recyclable in our regular recycling bins, no matter how badly they want to be. Materials don't get recycling privileges by association; a plastic air pillow doesn't become paper just because it spent a few days cuddled up next to some. Recycling facilities know the difference, even if your trash can doesn't.

So before the box goes in the bin: empty it completely. Foam, bubble wrap, air pillows, stray plastic, all evicted. Gone. Break down the box, and drop it in the recycling.

Some packaging materials are recyclable, just not in our regular bins. Bubble wrap, air pillows, and shrink wrap have special recycling bins around campus. That's where they want to be! They told me so.

Questions? rethinkwaste@richmond.edu