Berea’s recycling campus-wide program began as a student-led grassroots effort in 1989 and operated as a volunteer-run program until the creation of full-time Recycling Coordinator position and a supporting labor department at Facilities Management in the early 1990’s.

The student labor team collect and recycle paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, steel, and batteries from bins located in indoor and outdoor locations throughout campus.  Self-serve receptacles for collecting cell phones, inkjet printer cartridges, and toner cartridges are also available in the CPO and library. The Recycling Program also helps coordinate Berea’s participation in the annual Race to Zero Waste competition.

Information Systems and Services (IS&S) recycles electronic media (i.e., CD’s, disks, etc.) as well as electronic equipment by stripping usable parts from obsolete or inoperable equipment and then recycling the rest through an external vendor for processing.

The College also minimizes the amount of waste generated by building renovations by requiring contractors to recycle/reuse as much demolition and construction debris as possible.