Stewardship is a shared responsibility at Southern Utah University. With over 100 recycling bins across campus, SUU supports responsible stewardship and reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills. These bins are serviced by our Sustainability Specialist and student employees, recycling an average of 20 tons of material each year.
Pick-up requests submitted through the button below are our top priority, followed by scheduled checks of all campus bins. We aim to service each bin weekly, though university breaks, illness, weather construction, or other circumstances may occasionally cause delays. Recycling services are available only for SUU campus use, please do not bring recycling from home. If your bin needs signage, please reference the recycling sign and let us know in the pick-up request form. You can also view the full list of recycling bin locations serviced on campus.
Interested in taking your sustainability efforts further? Learn more about composting below and how you can help divert even more waste from the landfill.
- All recyclables must be clean and dry.
- Flattened Cardboard and Paperboard
- Magazines/Catalogs, Junk Mail and Paper
- Newspapers
- Aluminum, Steel, or Tin Beverage/Food Cans
- Cleaned & Rinsed Plastic Beverage, Food, and Soap Containers (Plastics #1, #2, #5)
- food or organic material
- Shredded Paper and any paper smaller than a credit card in length and width
- hard cover books
- Polystyrene, Waxed & Carbon Paper
- receipts (lined with plastic)
- toilet or tissue paper
- Plastics #3, #4, #6, or #7
- Plastic Bags and wrap
- Thin Film Plastics
- Glass
- Greasy Boxes or Paper (Pizza Boxes, Used Paper Plates, etc.)
- Aluminum Foil
- Batteries
- Bubble Wrap
- Fluids or Aerosols
- Hazardous Chemical Containers (Motor Oil, Pesticides, etc.)
- Paint Cans
- Styrofoam and Packaging Peanuts
- Tetra Packs (Juice Box, Almond Milk, etc.)
Recyclable materials are driven to Republic Services in Las Vegas for sorting and processing in their recycling plant. We have started to collecting aluminum cans separately to sell to Robinson Recycling.
To learn even more about where your recycling goes, check out this cool YouTube Video Tour of Republic Service's Las Vegas Recycling Plant.
Residential Recycling
SUU and the surrounding off-campus community does not currently provide recycling services to residential areas, but for an annual or monthly fee, the private recycling company Recyclops can pick up materials either weekly or bi-weekly right from your home. As well the USU Extension Office in Iron County is starting to collect recycling for free outside of their office and paying themselves for Recyclops to pick it up.
And for local metal recycling there is Robinson Recycling.
Shredded Paper
While we cannot take shredded paper for recycling. The Biology Department is taking shredded paper for its animals bedding. There is a bin outside of SCA 007 which you can bring your bagged shredded paper to.
Book Reuse
If a book is recycled it gets taken apart and used for material. Instead please consider one of the FranklinMedia's book bins to give every book a second life. There is one located by the bookstore, and inside the library.
Everyone can live a more sustainable lifestyle by doing all of the following:
- Reduce and Refuse: Avoid products that are not sustainable or use less of them.
- Reuse: Put an item into action or service again.
- Repair: Fix something instead of replacing it.
- Recycle and Repurpose: Transform used, useless or unwanted materials into something new.
Composting
SUU uses the Berkeley Method of hot composting to transform campus organic waste into nutrient-rich compost. Fresh green (nitrogen-rich) material comes from pre-consumer food scraps from SUU Dining, while SUU's grounds collects brown (carbon-rich) material in form of all the leaves fallen across campus which would other wise go to the landfill. Manure from the SUU Farm is also incorporated to support the composting process.
Composting started in 2022 and each school year, the composting program continues to expand. In the 2024–25 school year, for the first time SUU composted over half of the waste generated by SUU Dining, a new high of 5.4 tons of food waste, all of which was successfully composted on campus.
Finished compost is used throughout campus Community and Hope gardens.
We are now open to individuals who would like to compost with us. Please follow the instructions posted in the garden or referenced in the Composting video above.
Greens
- fresh vegetable/fruit scraps
- coffee grounds
- egg shells
- herbivore waste
- fresh plant clippings
Browns
- fall leaves
- untreated wood/paper/cardboard
- dead/dried plants
Not Compostable
- meat/dairy/oils
- produce stickers
- processed (glossy) wood/paper/cardboard
- compostable/biodegradable/bio plastics (needs industrial facility)
- dog/cat waste
- fabric