The Green Movement:

Cleaning the World One University at a Time

Brittany Crum

Amanda Lipari

Torin Schneider

White Paper Project

Purdue University
English 421Y
7/24/2009
Prepared for: Professor Tobienne

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 Table of Contents
 Title Page………………………………………………………. 1

 Table of Contents……………………………………………… 2

 Executive Summary…………………………………………… 3

 Introduction: What are we doing to make a difference…….. 4

 Energy and Water Consumption Study……………………… 6

 Recycling……………………………………………………….. 8

 Purdue Green Buildings………………………………………. 12

 Conclusion……………………………………………………... 15

 Works Cited…………………………………………………… 16

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 Executive Summary

Recycling and conservation is a growing concern for the United States. Going green is not
a movement that can be done all at once, but rather start small with families, high schools,
colleges, and companies. In recent years it has been brought to the attention of many Americans
the importance of recycling and the effects everyone can have on the world, if we use a little less.
With a declining economy and a large unemployment rate what better timing could there be to
teach people how to use less. Purdue University has decided to step up to the plate and take on
the going green challenge.

Recycling is a huge global concern. Using recyclable material can actually save a
company money, time, and extra material. Purdue organizations have written grants to help gain
money to make recycle bins more available fore student, faculty, and staff. Purdue has observed
their consumption of energy and water in residence halls and has tried to make adjustments to use
less. Also the university has taken into account consumption of fuel by purchasing flex-fuel vans,
smart cars, and an electric car. Also there has been an addition added to campus with two green
buildings. One location is on top of Schleham Hall, called a green roof where vegetation can
grow and improve air quality. The second is a large addition being built and maintained with
environmental friendly materials. Although Purdue is not rated one of the top green movement
universities, there are many improvements around campus to show we are making a difference.

This white paper discusses what Purdue is doing now to improve the world. Like many
other people recycling and conserving was not a top priority, but now it has become a necessity.
With over 2 millions tons of bottle water plastic being pushed into out landfills, there is a need for
something to be done. This paper focuses on the need to recycle and how it can be done as a
community. Also there is a study introduced to show that Purdue is moving in the direction of
using less and teaching students how to do the same. There is discussion of available
transportation with carpools and Citybus, as well as a survey conducted on the thoughts and
feeling of Purdue students. By the end of this white paper, it is our goal that students, faculty, and
staff have a better understanding of how to recycle, where to recycle, and are more aware of their
consumption of energy, water, and daily materials.

Introduction: What we are doing to make a difference

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 In recent years there has been an increase in news and around our communities’
information about recycling. But what is the reason for all of this new found “Green Society?”
People may think that recycling has nothing to do with their own personal lives. That is why the
American recycling rate is under 30 percent according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
American’s lives revolve around easy and disposable lifestyles. Take diapers for example; in the
past people used cloth diapers. In today’s society, people do not have time to wash the cloth. They
want something fast and easy to get rid of the waste. By not recycling however, people are
hurting their own lives more than they think.

Within the past several years, there has been a decline in employment. Recycling creates
six times as many jobs for landfills. Another thing that affects many lives is the gas prices.
Everyone hates to see them rise; how many of those people are doing anything about it?

Natural Resources are Slowly Disappearing

Natural resources are slowly disappearing. The oil used to power our cars will run out, but
there has yet to be a reasonable mass designed solution to this upcoming problem. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) says that the United States is only five percent of the world’s population
and yet use 25 percent of the world’s natural resources. American’s are very dependent on those
resources and are not doing a lot to compensate what is being used.
According to Environmental Management, recycling just one ton of steel saves 2,500
pounds of iron ore, 1,000 pounds of coal, and 40 pounds of limestone. Recycling also can
produce materials that are refined and thus more valuable than the natural resources. Since these
materials can be man made we are less likely to run out of them as quickly as the natural
resources we use today.

Separating What is Recycled

Most things are recyclable, but there are guidelines to what can and cannot be recycled.
When recycling, it is very important to separate items into the appropriate bins. After one
separates into the right bins, someone else continues to separate those even farther down. There
are some products that can not be recycled or reused and that list can be seen below.
Table 1: List of non-recyclables Information
came from Eco-cycle.com

*Papers with food, beverage, or hazardous waste *Fertilizer Bags

*Carbon Paper *Caps or lids
*Hardback book covers *Foam
*Photos *Motor oil bottles
*Tyvek Envelops *Air conditioners
*Used napkins and tissues *Refrigerators
*Pet Food *Any fluids, oil, chemicals, etc
*Charcoal

Relevance of recycling

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 Through recycling Americans can take control of the biggest issues arising in American
society. Americans can preserve the world and create a better future. Creating a safe atmosphere
for the next generations is big concern for many people around the world.

Who is Recycling?
In 2007, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation researched to see
what age groups recycled the most. They found that 30 percent of the people between 18 and 30
did not recycle at all. However, the least recycling ages were those between 40 and 60. The
research showed that senior citizens were the largest contributors.

University and school districts across the country have decided to make the effort to
change this by adding recycling bins either in the classroom or hallways. According to a survey
conducted in July 2009 Purdue students recycle when they are on campus, but usually most do
not recycle at home. Most said the only reason they choose to recycle on campus is because the
location of the bins are convenient. Below is a chart to show the findings from the survey
“Purdue Recycling.”

Graph 1: Information from survey taken in July 2009

The students who parcipated in this survey showed that most students believe Purdue does not
need to do more to recycle. Though Purdue would not agree. Through transportation, buildings,
and student awareness Purdue is working on becoming a greener university.

Boiler Green Initiative and Carbon Neutrality make Students Aware

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 Have you looked around campus lately and seen what Purdue is doing to recycle? Signs of
a greener Purdue are located all over the campus. It could be the flex-fuel van that passes you on
the road or the recycling bin located just outside your dorm room, Purdue is helping to keep the
world clean. Many students are searching for the same goal and involving their student
organization. Currently there are 15 student organizations that support a greener Purdue. There
are two major organizations that are dedicated to the sustainability of Purdue University and
energy awareness, Boiler Green Initiative (BGI) and Carbon Neutrality at Purdue merged with
BGI in 2008.

Carbon Neutrality at Purdue conducted a study in the summer of 2008 to monitor the
energy and water consumption of four University residence halls. According to their website the
graphs below were taken during that time. They also detailed these graphs with a description of
the types of facilities those halls contain.

Graph 2: Data taken from University Residence Power

usage, conducted by Carbon Neutrality
http://www.housing.purdue.edu/universityresgreen/

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 Graph 3: Data taken from University Residence,
conducted by Carbon Neutrality
http://www.housing.purdue.edu/universityresgreen/

BGI’s Reducing Competition with Residence Halls

In April 2009, Boiler Green Initiative conducted a competition with these four residence
halls to see which hall could reduce the most energy and water consumption. This competition
lasted from April 8th through April 19th 2009 according to the BGI event website. The data is
listed below and the results are very interesting. Students in the halls of McCutcheon, Harrison,
and Earhart all have some reduction in one or the other categories and in two of the halls there
were savings. When looking at the data it could be said, when students are aware they are being
watched and know that their conservation is going to be observed, they are willing to make a
difference. Can you imagine the possibilities with a year round competition?

Table 2: Information obtained from Boiler Green Initiative

http://www.boilergreen.com/page15/page15.html

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 Residence Electric Water consumption Total Savings
Hall consumption consumed/person/daily competition
impact

McCutcheon 20.4% 3% increase-59.3 gals 17.4% $491

reduction reduction

Harrison 10.6% 3.6% reduction-58.2 14.2% $436

reduction gals reduction

Earhart 4.2% 3.6% increase-85.9 gals 0.6% --

reduction reduction

Shreve 2% increase 9.2% increase-58.1 gals 11.2% --

increase

Purdue Places Bins Around Campus for Every Day Materials

Not only is it important to watch the consumption of energy and water, but also to recycle
the materials that are used everyday. According to an article written by Purdue news in October of
2007, the residence halls recycled almost 400 tons of glass, plastic, aluminum, steel, grease, and
paper. The recycling collected from just the residence is 25 percent of the university’s total
recycling volume. Each dining court is equipped with a large recycling bin, and there are over
800 recycling bins placed in the residence halls. Also recycling is picked up at Ross-Ade
Stadium, Purdue Academic Buildings, and the Purdue Research Foundation Buildings.

What Students Can Recycle

When it comes to recycling many people do not know what materials are recyclable.
According to the Boiler Green Initiative website, Purdue University recycles mixed paper,
cardboard (not accepting pizza boxes, cereal boxes, or wax-coated boxes), newspapers, plastics,
glass, and aluminum cans. Office papers such as envelops, brochures, post-it and self-adhesive
label are also accepted. All recyclables should be sorted to make division of products easier.
Currently BGI has designed a poster to put emphases on the amount of plastic water bottles used.
The poster can be seen below and contains facts about bottled water and the impact they have on
environment.

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 Picture 1: Taken from the BGI current projects website
http://www.boilergreen.com/page2/page10/Recycling.html

Where does Recycled Materials go?

Some might ask the question, when I make the effort to recycle, “am I really doing
anything?” All materials that are recycled at Purdue are transported to the Lafayette location.
Once everything is there it is then transported to Muncie, Indiana, where it will go through
detailed sorting. Next, the materials are moved to a reprocessing plant in either Kentucky or
Chicago and then used to make new products. According to BGI, a manufacturer will used 88%
less energy to work with recycled plastic over making new plastic. This also conserves oil and
natural gas, which saves the company more money.

Purdue’s Benefits from Recycling

Purdue is starting to see the advantages in recycling, but there is small fee that must be
paid to see that outcome. According to the article written by Purdue News, the University
Residence Halls invest $3,000 of personnel time a week for the recycling programs. Purdue saves
$13,000 a year on landfill fees and recyclable materials sold. According to metalprices.com
currently aluminum is $0.71 per pound, which also contributes to the savings of the recycling
program.

A large sum of the money that is used for the Purdue recycling program comes from grant
writings conducted by the Boiler Green Initiative. In 2007, a grant was obtained of $10,000 for
the Stewart Center recycling bins given by Tipmont REMC. In 2008, a $25,000 grant was given
from the Indiana Department of Environment Management for Ross-Ade Stadium recycling.

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Recently, BGI acquired $68,700 from State Farm Youth Advisory Board for the Schleman Hall
Green Roof Project.

Transportation Around Purdue Changes

Not only is Purdue concerned with energy and water consumption and waste
management, but also transportation and alternative fuels. Purdue has developed a program called
BoilerRide for students, faculty, and staff. It is used to find people that live close to you, have
similar work and life style schedules that you could possibly carpool with. The program is
completely free and all you need is a Purdue career account. This program is used to reduce the
amount of vehicles on the road, save money, and an opportunity to meet new people. The CityBus
transportation can always be used and is completely free for students. Also available are several
hybrid buses that travel around campus to reduce the amount of emissions.

An article written by the Journal Courier opens new insight to the transportation fleet that
Purdue University has. This articles states that as of April 2009 Purdue has 1,200 licensed
vehicles. These vehicles include 30 planes, 279 trailers, and 495 van, trucks, and cars. They have
purchased two smart cars, and a Zenn which is an electric car. Purdue plans to have 60 percent
hybrid vans and trucks and 40% flex-fuel by mid-2012. Not only are they helping the
environment this way, but also the campus. According to Carol Cox, Director of Transportation
Service, another reason they have chosen flex-fuel is because it supports corn research and new
developments at Purdue.

Although Purdue is not one of the top Universities for the green movement, there are
many things happening on campus to make a difference. With more advertisements, public
service announcements with focus on recycling and food waste, and student organizations a
difference is slowly being made.

A different way that Purdue is encouraging less usage is in driving and is being
implemented in a couple different ways. The BoilerRide system that is essentially a way for
people to get in touch with each other about carpooling to and from campus has been an
important part and is finally getting started and used well. The biggest change however has
come in part to increasing gas prices over the past few years, but is in the effort the university
is putting into making a more bicycle friendly campus. They are increasing the number of
bike racks all across campus and are adding more bike paths on the roads to give bike riders a
safer way to commute as opposed to weaving through traffic. With the increased bike traffic,
there are less cars being used and less pollutants being cast into the atmosphere. Biking is
also a very cheap and healthy way to encourage being greener since it gives the rider some
exercise while having little to no effect on the environment.

Advertising Recycling to Get Students Involved.

As Purdue continues its work into a greener future, one of the keys to making this work is
to get the students involved. As the green student organizations grow, the university is doing its
own part at the campus buildings and residence halls to make it as easy as possible to recycle

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more. One of the ways they are doing this is by advertising their efforts to get students to use less
and recycle more.

On each floor of every residence hall this upcoming year, there are recycling receptacles
for aluminum, glass and paper. While these bins are not always large, there are many signs up on
the hall walls telling people to use them more, and to let them know that they exist on their floor.
By making it much more accessible and less of a chore, the residence halls are all continuing to
see increased amounts recycled every year since the programs were initiated years ago. The
recycling is taken out daily along with the trash to ensure that the bins do not fill and can continue
to be used as much as possible all week long. The university spends large amounts of money to
be able to run their recycling program at the residence halls each year. As they recycle, they save
money in landfill fees and trash hauling, but still have to pay the employees whose specific job is
to maintain the recycling at each of the dorms. The workers have to collect the recycling and sort
it into specific bins at the larger dumpster in back of each dorm, so that these dumpsters can be
taken to the local recycling hub in Lafayette.

Picture 2: Purdue News Residence Hall Recycling

http://www.boilergreen.com/page15/page15.html

Purdue’s Ranking in the Big Ten

While Purdue is doing a lot to try and become greener with recycling and hybrid vehicles
and using green materials wherever possible, we are still below the average for the waste, paper,
and glass/plastic/metal recycled among other Big Ten Conference schools.

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 Graph 4: Big Ten Conference Information

Building Greener Buildings Around Campus

So while Purdue is making quite an effort already, there is a long way to go for a greener
university. Recycling is just the beginning of this task, and other things are being done to become
a cleaner university who has less of a harmful impact on our community.

One of the ways Purdue is going about this is the addition of two green buildings to
campus. The two buildings are going to be totally different ways of making a building green; the
first is adding the first green roof to Schleman Hall. A green roof is simply a roof where there is
vegetation grown on the roof of the building. There are two types of green roofs, intensive and
extensive, Purdue choosing the latter. An intensive green roof is one where it will be planned
from the assembly of the building. It requires much more soil and larger loads to be held, so that
trees and bushes and other large plants could be sustained on the roof. Purdue had no choice but
to install an extensive green roof due to not having unavailable roofing support system. An
extensive system weighs much less so many roofs can be retrofitted for these systems because
they use shorter depths of soil and smaller plants. They tend to be drought resistant plants and are

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quite easy to maintain and are hefty plants to survive with less care. There are many reasons and
advantages in installing green roofs. One of which is to help reduce storm water run-off. By
adding plants and soil, instead of 99 percent of water rinsing away, this same water is almost
completely absorbed into the green roof and lessens the load on storm drains. Along with the
decreased run-off, the green roof also helps to increase air quality and gives animals a place to go.
The plant life can also help to reduce noise from entering the building, help insulate the building
during both winter and summer, and greatly extends the life of the roofing since it is protected
from the elements to a large degree. Since the extensive roofs can be retrofitted to buildings, look
for Purdue to build more of these in the future if the Schleman Hall project works well.

Picture 3: Schleham Hall Green Roof

The second type of green building that is being added at Purdue is in the form of an
addition to the current Mechanical Engineering (ME) building. The addition is a $33 million,
41,000-square-foot addition called the Roger B. Gatewood Wing and is planned to include
flexible classrooms, student commons and research labs, and will increase ME’s space by
over 50 percent. When construction begins the goal will be to meet the environmental
standards set by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council (LEED certification) and become
a certified green building. The ways the university plans to accomplish this is through using
recycled materials to build and efficient methods of maintaining the building. Some of these
ways include roofing supplies with a high solar reflectance index, plumbing fixtures that use

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less treated water, construction materials with recycled content, carpet that is green label plus
rated, wood products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as recycled material, and
lastly to use paint and sealants with low volatile-organic-chemical ratings (reducing indoor
air pollutants and improving air quality).

Using Less Material

While the ways Purdue is changing or encouraging used to recycle more, a large part
of becoming a greener university includes using less. This includes, but is not limited to
using less electricity, reducing A/C and heating, printing less paper, and carpooling or riding a
bike or walking instead of driving. Purdue has begun this by encouraging students in
residence halls to use less electronics and to have fewer things plugged in all the time. By
making a conscious effort to use less, the dorms can save lots of money, and as demonstrated
earlier in graphs, it can have a large effect on the actual usages when students are made aware
of how much they waste. Also while many of the dorms are now retrofitted with A/C, they
are encouraged to, when they can, to still use windows to cool the rooms. Including the
residence halls, many of the campus buildings are having light sensors installed in bathrooms
and other common areas. These are designed to detect the presence of persons, so that when
no one is around, the lights can shut off and not waste the electricity. When it senses a person
again, it will turn the lights on until they are no longer needed. Little small things like this if
installed campus wide can make a big difference in electrical bills and greatly reduce the
watts used every year.

Printing Quotas Help Recycle

Another way that Purdue is encouraging students to use less is a printing quota added
to each student’s account that only allows you to print a certain amount on campus printers
each year. By limiting this and making students pay after they exceed the given quota, they
are encouraging students to print less and to more efficiently use what it is that they do have
to print. Almost all labs around campus have been added to this system in an attempt to
reduce the paper waste that is produced daily. The computer labs however do have large
recycling trash cans next to the printers that are specifically for wasted paper and these are
used extensively due to the nature of how accessible they are.

Preserving the History and Creating a Greener Purdue

Purdue University has been around since 1869 with a few of the buildings still
existing from original construction; Purdue has quite a history in some areas. Part of the
effort the university is making is to retrofit and improve these buildings by making them
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more efficient while still being able to retain the building and the history that comes with
many of them. Since many buildings will remain standing, they are simply doing their best to
make what they can green on the historical parts of campus while still preserving the
buildings. An important part of the effort for Purdue to become greener is to use what the
campus already has and work with it to have less of an impact on the surrounding community
while continuing to provide the same education that has come from the campus for over a
century.

Conclusion

Purdue might not be the largest contributor to recycling, but they are striving to make
a difference. Through university transportation, student awareness and involvement, and
construction Purdue’s efforts are making the campus greener one piece of paper at time.
Purdue has the support of its students and they agreed more awareness to other students and
Purdue faculty about the benefits would draw more to contribute. Even through the
competitions Purdue challenges students to be more resourceful.

Through efforts of universities like Purdue, recycling efforts from Americans could
make a drastic change within the next several years. As Americans recycle more they will be
using less and less of the natural resources. The effects will trickle down to every household.
Americans will begin to see how recycle affects them in their personal lives everyday.

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 Works Cited

Boiler Green Initiative. Purdue University. 11 July 2009.

http://www.boilergreen.com/index.html

Boiler Ride. Purdue University. 10 July 2009.

http://www.purdue.edu/transportation/boilerride.htm

Lipari, Amanda. “Purdue Recycling.” July 2009.

Metal Prices. London Metal Exchange. 13 July 2009. http://www.metalprices.com

Purdue Extension – Renewable Energy. Purdue University. 11 July 2009.

<http://www.extension.purdue.edu/renewable-energy/>

“Recycling and Environmental Facts.” Eco-cycle. 2006. 16 July 2009

http://www.ecocycle.org/tidbits/index.cfm

Schenke, Jim. Purdue University Residences expands recycling efforts. 5 October 2007.
<http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2007b/071005FrazeeRecycle.html>

Sustainability at Purdue University page. Purdue University. 10 July 2009.

http://www.purdue.edu/sustainability/index.htm

Weddle, Eric. Purdue driving toward eco-friendly objectives. Journal and Courier 19 April 2009.
<http://www.purdue.edu/physicalfacilities/pdf/news/Purdue_transportation.pdf>

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