Resource Recovery

Resource Recovery’s primary function is managing recycling and waste management services for much of the campus community. Paper products of all types generated on campus are collected for recycling, organic discards from dining facilities are collected for composting, construction and demolition debris is collected and sorted for recovery, and a host of other materials are recovered from the campus waste stream every year.

Please contact Resource Recovery, Facilities Management, at 581-3076 or email  daniel.e.smith@maine.edu  for additional information.

UMaine eWaste Recycling

UM IT now handles the collection and removal of all UMaine’s eWaste needs. UMaine has partnered with GiveITGetIT to safely and securely dispose of all campus eWaste with a focus on reusing useful working equipment.

UM IT collects:

  • Computers – Desktops and Laptops
  • Monitors
  • AV Equipment
  • Computer parts, including hard drives

Please call UM IT at 1-800-696-4357 or email help@maine.edu to arrange assessment and collection of your eWaste.

UMaine Campus Recycling

The University of Maine is one of a growing number of communities that recycle. Currently, UMaine partners with Casella Waste Systems for its Zero-Sort recycling services. All accepted recyclable materials can be placed in a blue recycling bin, and all non-recyclable waste (including food or food-contaminated material) can be placed in gray trash bins.

 Recycling is as easy as 1-2-3!

  1. Find a designated blue recycling bin
  2. Place clean, accepted recyclable materials into the blue recycling bin – no food or food-contaminated material!
  3. Let UMaine custodians take it from there…

For recycling-related questions, please contact the UMaine Sustainability Office at 581-1571.

The Material Recovery Facility (MRF)

UMaine maintains a small Material Recovery Facility (MRF, pronounced ‘murph’) where a variety of bulky wastes and hard to dispose of materials generated from construction, land clearing, and renovation projects are staged, reprocessed for reuse, or processed for disposal.

  • Materials reprocessed for reuse include brush and tree waste, soil, asphalt, concrete, stone and other aggregate. Brush and tree waste is chipped and used on campus for building woodland paths or sold to local companies that use wood chips as biomass fuel.
  • Soil, asphalt, concrete, stone and other aggregates are stockpiled, crushed and screened, and reused in sidewalk and road construction projects, landscaping, drainage materials around culverts and piping, and various other applications suitable for these reclaimed materials.

Please contact UMaine Resource Recovery at 581-3076 or email daniel.e.smith@maine.edu for additional information or to request services.