View inside the recycling center on campus.

Middlebury runs a College-wide recycling center and compost operation. Each year, about 65 percent of campus waste is diverted from landfills.

Recycling

Middlebury College uses a no-sort recycling system. Recycling goes in one bin, composting in another, and everything else goes in the landfill bin. Items that can be recycled:

  • All paper of any color, including envelopes, Post-it notes, newspapers, and magazines
  • Boxboard (cereal boxes, clean pizza boxes, etc.)
  • Plastic containers (#1–7) without plastic bottle caps
  • Glass (clear and colored)
  • Aluminum cans and foil, tin and steel cans
  • Empty aerosol cans

Other Recyclables

For recyclables not listed above, here are ways to recycle common items around your dorm, classroom, or office.

  • Batteries: Dispose in your dorm’s battery collection bucket or bring to recycling center
  • Compact fluorescent lightbulbs: Bring to collection bucket in commons room, Franklin Environmental Center, campus bookstore, or recycling center
  • Cardboard boxes: Break down and leave next to recycling bin
  • Bubble wrap: Leave neatly by bins
  • Packing peanuts: Contain in box or bag and leave by bins
  • Clothing, school supplies, furniture, appliances, rugs: Bring to recycling center for reuse or drop off at thrift store

Additional Recycling Resources

Note these links from Middlebury’s Recycling and Waste Management Department:

Composting

A collaborative effort between Middlebury’s dining services and facilities management turns nearly 300 tons of annual food waste into rich piles of compost. Staff collects compost and mixes it into piles to decompose. After being tested for quality, all compost is used on campus by landscaping staff. Dining services maintains stringent composting habits with approximately 90 percent of waste generated going directly into the composting system instead of the landfill.