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Burning Question: Why should I sort my waste on campus? I’ve heard it all goes to landfill anyway.


A student at Auraria asked, “Why should I sort my waste on campus? I’ve heard it all goes to landfill anyways?” Waste sorting and diversion on Auraria Campus is operated and maintained to a high standard. Read on to learn about how our office ensures that materials fit for recycling and compost make it to the right place. 


Compost 

In 2020, students at the Auraria Campus voted to create a campus-wide composting service (ASCP, 2020). Since then, the ASCP associates have been managing and maintaining organic waste sorting on Campus.  


How is it maintained?

When you place an item into a compost bin on Auraria Campus, a dedicated team of individuals works to make sure your apple core makes it to the compost pile. Each week, compost student associates collect compost bins from across campus and transport them to our on-campus compost facility. Here, the bins are weighed, data is recorded, and the students sort the contents of each bin by hand to remove contaminants. Contaminants are any inorganic material that mistakenly finds its way into the compost bin, such as plastic bottles or aluminum cans. Learn more about waste sorting from our compost student associates here (DITL, DITL 2)


Where does it go?

The compost operation at Auraria campus is a closed-loop system. The organic materials are collected on campus, processed on campus, and the resulting product is used to fertilize the campus grounds. Every flower bed, tree ring, and bio swale is fertilized with in-house compost. (Saran et al., 2024) Students play a big part in supporting compost operations by properly sorting their organic waste. This step is critical to ensure that the maximum amounts of materials get diverted away from landfills. Reference the handy picture guides atop each compost bin on campus if you're not sure where something belongs. 


Recycling

Recycling is an important part of waste diversion here on campus and worldwide.  Despite this, many of us struggle to know confidently what items belong in the recycling bin. This creates confusion for consumers, and contamination for waste sorters. But does it all go to the landfill anyway? Not exactly; read on to learn more.


How recycling works in Denver

The Auraria Campus has a single-stream recycling system. This means all recyclable materials go in the same bin and get sorted later at a Material Recovery Facility or MRF  (Beaty, 2025). These employees work hard to ensure that items placed in the recycling bin are properly recycled rather than sent to the landfill.


Putting the wrong items into recycling increases the cost and poses safety risks to employees. To make their jobs easier, and thus ensure your recyclables avoid the landfill, focus on only recycling the most valuable materials–clean bottles, cans, paper, and clean cardboard (Waste Management, 2022). 


The most important variable in determining what gets recycled is public knowledge of recyclable content.  Brush up on your recycling knowledge with the resources below, and remember: When in doubt, throw it out!


How Recycling works at Auraria

The blue recycling bins you see around campus are serviced by the city of Denver, so the rules for recycling are the same. Focus on aluminum cans, paper, clean bottles, and clean cardboard! For more complicated recyclables, like plastic, we have helpful image guides on the front of every waste bin to help you make the right decision!

  • Hard to Recycle Items

  • in addition to what the city accepts for recycling, the ASCP has expanded our capacity to include hard to recycle items as well. This includes, batteries, clothing, electronics, office supplies and personal care items. Just look for our hard to recycle stations around campus. We work with specialty material recovery facilities to responsibly take these things off your hands


Waste 

Now comes the elephant in the room. What about the rest of it? Yes, it's no secret, Auraria produces waste; That is, items that can't be composted or recycled. It's true, not everything can be diverted from landfills, but we do our best to maximize our diversions!

What can you do as a member of the Auraria Campus Community?

When asking the question of why one should bother to sort their waste, the answer is: to make the jobs of everyone who participates in getting that waste diverted easier. The easier their jobs are, the more effective recycling and composting become. With knowledge of how to sort waste comes confidence in one’s choice to toss any item in its proper bin.


Written by: Jasmyne Williams


References


ASCP. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions [PDF]. Auraria Sustainable Campus Program. Retrieved August 21, 2026, from https://www.sustainableauraria.org/_files/ugd/eb1896_682c4e10e8a847fea10530ff63f4216c.pdf

ASCP. (2020). Compost referendum | ASCP. Auraria Sustainable Campus Program. Https://Www.Sustainableauraria.Org/. https://www.sustainableauraria.org/compostref

Beaty, K. (2025, December 4). You asked if Denver really recycles. We took a tour to find out. Denverite. https://denverite.com/2025/12/04/denver-is-recycling-real/

Saran, P., Geurink, J., & Miller, L. (2024, October 1). Closed-loop compost system paves the way for a sustainable future - MSU Denver RED. MSU Denver RED. https://red.msudenver.edu/video/video-closed-loop-compost-system-paves-the-way-for-a-sustainable-future/

 
 
 

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