Thursday, February 17, 2011

One Man's Trash, Another Man's Treasure

Just about a year to the day I wrote a post titled "One Man's Trash" - it was March 8, 2010. The story was about the amount of material recycled and harvested out of the existing Human Ecology building when all units and functions had finished relocating. The results of an organized effort by Human Ecology staff, faculty and students to purge responsibly kept tons of trash out of landfills and gave new life to items, thanks to the good folks from Habitat for Humanity.

A year later we have a different set of information to share with you about the construction phase of our project. The project recycling goal is 95% and as of the end of January our "project to date" rate is 93.4%. These numbers play a crucial role in LEED certification as well as just being the right thing to do.

According to data from the State of Wisconsin, the amount of material (including asphalt, cardboard, concrete, metal and wood) that's been diverted is more than 3,800 tons.

I'd say that's a treasure fit for a king.