MIT has recycled for many years. An expanded recycling program is underway to enhance our effort. Desk-side and common area paper recycling was expanded from white paper only to mixed paper, newspaper, magazines and cardboard. Large numbers of new recycling bins have been placed beside trash bins in campus common areas indoors for collecting mixed paper and commingled recyclables and outdoors for collecting commingled recyclables.

MIT has increased the monthly recycling rates from 10.5% to a peak rate of over 35%. These rate are a percentage of the total tonnage of materials recycled compared to the total amount discarded. MIT recycled 993 tons of materials in 2001 and is on course to surpass this total substantially in 2005. In addition, a food scrap composting project is operating in several dining rooms and continues to expand. MIT is composting an average of 20 tons of food preparation scraps monthly.

Also included in the recycling program is scrap metals, wood, electronic equipment, cathode ray tubes, composted yard wastes and baled corrugated cardboard. MIT is continuously working to expand the recycling program to include other difficult to manage wastes. For example, in 2001 the Department of Housing recycled 198 discarded mattresses from student housing. Another area of expansion is the recycling of construction and demolition debris that began with the demolition of buildings E10 and E20 in which 4,519 tons of demolition materials were recycled. This project has set a standard to incorporate recycling in future construction and demolition projects at MIT and will also have a significant impact on the recycling tonnage generated.