n percent of American Universitys waste was recycled. However, the American University started a more efficient recycling project in May 1999, as the contracted a new company, the Consolidated Waste Industry (CWI), to recycle its waste.Besides, A.U. buys its office paper to Boise Cascade Corporation, which is environmentally conscious and sustains the forests. Paper is essentially made of wood, which is crushed into small pieces, and mixed with water and chemicalsThe Physical Plant at A.U. collects the trash, which is then picked up by CWI and brought to a warehouse where it is dumped on the floor on a conveyor belt and separated. Most of the office papers are already disposed in special bins at A.U. and usually they do not need to be separated from the rest of the trash. Then, this company sells it to another company, First Fiber, in Pennsylvania, which actually recycles it. According to Jan Lambert, the paper goes into a mill where the ink is removed and the contaminants are taken off. Then, the rest of the recycling process involves washing the paper with water in a blender, requiring 5,000 gallons per two tons of paper. The paper is converted into pulp and laid on a web, where it is pressed and dried, to be cut into sheets again. Unfortunately we were not told if the company uses chemicals in the process, although Lambert said the water was recycled. . Nevertheless, every ton of paper that is recycled saves about 1.4 cube meter (about 50 cube feet) of landfill space. One ton of recycled paper saves 17 pulpwood trees (trees used to produce paper). According to Mark Fiest at A.U., the college now recycles 50 percent of its waste due to this program, which is successful. IV. EvaluationBased on the information we received, and as far as A.U. is concerned, it seems to be a closed-loop-recycling program, which is a success. Considering that in a couple years the amount of waste recycled increased from ten to 50 percent, however...
