Behind the blue bins: UK’s new recycling video reveals the journey of your waste

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 10, 2025) — The University of Kentucky is turning one person’s waste into another’s pizza box, soda can, Adirondak chair or a plethora of other items that can be found around campus.

“Recycling is one of the easiest ways everyone on campus can make an impact,” said Ryan Lark, zero-waste specialist in Facilities Management.

In 2024, the university collected 1,138 tons of recycling from the blue bins around campus to send to their recycling partner. This was only 40% of the 2,869 total tons recycled last year. The rest came from operations efforts including collecting scrap metal, batteries and other materials. These efforts reflect the university’s effort to become a zero-waste campus through reducing, reusing, composting and recycling at least 90% of the academic campus’ waste.

Nov. 15 is America Recycles Day, a day celebrating the impact and importance of recycling. UK Recycling will be participating in this national celebration with the release of a recycling video highlighting the complete process of recycled materials collected on campus, showing students how their daily behaviors can help better the environment and support a robust, local industry.

Based on a 2023 study conducted at UK, students said recycling is important to them because they liked the feeling of doing something for the environment and supporting a sustainability-oriented industry. Lauren Cagle, Ph.D., director of the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment, and Finley Haight, a sophomore research assistant double majoring in environmental and sustainability studies and geography, conducted the study in the Fall 2023 looking at awareness of the recycling process amongst students, faculty and staff. They found 36% of the campus community is worried they are recycling incorrectly, and many individuals expressed a distrust in the recycling process. These results emphasize the importance of education and outreach across campus to ensure waste diversion efforts continue growing.

Based on the results of that study and his experience in recycling, Henry Walke, an environmental and sustainability studies and economics junior and UK Recycling intern, spent his sophomore year working on a project to make it easier for the campus community to understand the process and impact of their recycling efforts at UK.

“In my few years at the university, I’ve seen a lot of people confused about the recycling process and unsure of how to learn more about it,” Walke said. “I wanted to make a quick, clear and reliable resource that could be accessed whenever someone might be confused or interested in learning more about recycling and how they can make an impact.”

Walke began interning with UK Recycling through the Sustainability Internship Program in the fall of 2024 to further develop his understanding of sustainability and economics. A large part of his internship focused on producing a video covering the recycling process after an item is placed into a blue bin on campus.

Due to many Wildcats not recognizing the impact of their recycling efforts, Walke wanted to represent the process which occurs after the mixed recycling leaves campus to create trust in the recycling system.

“A lot of people are confused about what happens to their recycling and wonder if their items ever actually get recycled. This video demystifies the process and is a reliable, quick ‘how-to’ on what happens after recycling leaves campus,” Walke said. “I hope it will empower people to recycle more and be a useful resource for UK Recycling to continue educating the campus as well as for those who are new to campus every year.”

To celebrate America Recycles Day, UK Recycling is also part of a collaborative event with students in an event planning and coordination course in the UK Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, taught by Tracy Lu, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Retailing and Tourism Management. The event will take place 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12, in the Gatton Student Center fireplace lounge across from the bookstore and will showcase UK Recycling’s progress toward a zero-waste campus and include interactive activities to engage the campus community in sustainable practices.

The last home football game of the year will be on America Recycles Day on Saturday, Nov. 15, and UK Recycling will be handing out the last design of the game day button series which will also be worn by the UK Wildcat Marching Band. In 2024, the university hit an all-time high of waste reduction during the football season. One football game achieved a 42% diversion rate. These recycling efforts have continued this season and are on track to surpass last year’s 31% season-long diversion rate. After the first three games alone this season, UK achieved a 34% diversion rate, six points higher than the same time last year.

UK is an ever-growing community with new faces on campus every year and UK Recycling is finding ways to make it easier for the UK community to stay informed. In 2024, the department released the “Waste Wizard” which can be used to reference what materials can and cannot be recycled across campus, opened an on-campus composting facility this year dramatically improving the university’s ability to process organic waste and spring semester move-out set a record with more than 15.6 tons of donations and recyclables collected.

“Recycling is more than a good thing to do. It’s a way to help our environment, support local jobs and diversify our economy,” Lark said. “This America Recycles Day, we want to showcase how UK prioritizes recycling as more than just a disposal option. It’s our culture, and it’s interwoven into everything that we do from student classwork to football games.”