Recycling Center closed indefinitely

The Recycling Center will not open for several months until a new coordinator can be found. Cherrie Ostrowski/State Hornet

The CSUS Recycling Center isn't recycling. In fact, the center, with nearly $300,000 worth of repairs and brand new equipment, isn't expected to be recycling anything for several months. If the center does not resume operations soon, it could cost the university up to $50,000 per year for an outside agency to recycle waste on campus.

The center had been recycling 90 percent of the waste generated on the CSUS campus before the coordinator, Mark Kennedy, resigned last fall. Without a director, the center stands idle and the waste piles up.

“It is our intent to hire someone and move forward in the next couple months,” said Edward Del Biaggio, vice president for Administrative Affairs.

The center occasionally recycles paper waste but is capable of handling yard, food, and beverage container waste as well.

Ronald Grant, director of Support Services, said that his department has traditionally run the recycling center, but that Facilities Management may take over soon.

“Del Biaggio has directed Facilities Management to hire someone and I do believe they will have a coordinator soon,” said Grant.

The Recycling Center also faces problems with funding. For the last three years, a partnership between ASI, the CSUS Foundation, and CSUS has provided the needed money. It is unclear whether the partners will continue to fund the center, which employs students through the federal work study program, after this semester.

“The university is looking at the program and its potential for the future, and ASI is waiting for that,” said Carol Ackerson, executive director of ASI.

Before Kennedy resigned to accept a job with the California Integrated Waste Management Board, the CSUS Conservation Program had been nearly self-sufficient.

“A goal of the program was for it to become self-funding through recycling profits,” said Grant.