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Office Recycling

UNC-Chapel Hill offers recycling services to all campus offices. The Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling (OWRR) collects recycling from centralized recycling sites in each building. To find your office recycling locations and schedule, please see the Building Recycling Schedules and Locations page.

Deskside recycling binDeskside recycling bins can be purchased by your department for easy recycling collection. Personal recycling bins are emptied by staff and are not emptied by housekeeping or OWRR staff.

Contact University Surplus to see if they have any deskside bins in stock or order your deskside bin from Staples using item number 758215.

Slim Jim containers are not provided by OWRR. To add a Slim Jim container to your office area, you must order the standard bin from Staples at cost to your department.

Ordering Details

  • Bin: Item Number #815622
  • Bottles/Cans Lid: Item Number #860345
  • Mixed Paper Lid: Item Number #39796

Once your Slim Jim arrives, please submit a work order to OWRR in order to have the container labeled and added to the service schedule. Slim Jim containers hold less material than our standard 35-gallon barrels (one barrel = two Slim Jim containers). Please consider the capacity needs of your office as we cannot increase the recycling service.

Cardboard is recycled in the outdoor blue dumpsters. To prepare cardboard for recycling, please take the following steps:

  1. Remove all items from cardboard
  2. Break it down or flatten
  3. Place it next to the closest recycling station

Housekeeping is responsible for removing cardboard from the buildings, not OWRR. If you have a buildup of cardboard in an area, please submit a work order to Housekeeping.

Please Flatten Cardboard Then Place in Blue Slotted Dumpster
Cardboard Dumpster

Buildings are able to purchase cabinets to house OWRR recycling bins for aesthetic and/or design purposes. At UNC-Chapel Hill, we collect recycling in a dual-stream fashion (mixed paper and bottles/cans) and pair these bins with a trash can. In order to maintain eligibility for OWRR recycling services, please utilize these design guidelines to ensure the cabinets fit OWRR’s standard bin. These cabinets have been collaboratively designed between the vendor and OWRR to optimize performance.

  1. Ensure each cabinet is equipped with a section for Trash, Bottles/Cans, and/or a Mixed Paper bin(s)
  2. Cabinets MUST use restrictive openings. Studies show that restrictive openings greatly decrease recycling contamination.
    1. Trash = Square Opening
    2. Bottles/Cans = Circle Opening
    3. Paper = Slot Opening
  3. If the cabinets are to have doors, they must be unlocked so they are freely accessible to OWRR staff for servicing.
  4. Cabinets must be able to include OWRR’s standard labels. These labels indicate to staff which bins to empty.
  5. The tops of cabinets should be slanted to prevent passersby from stacking items on top.

For more information on cabinet design, please visit the Design Guidelines or see the cabinet design catalog with cabinet options from an approved vendor. Thank you.

Cabinets for trash and bottles/cans.
Cabinets for trash and bottles/cans.
Cabinets for mixed paper and bottles/cans.
Cabinets for mixed paper and bottles/cans.