July 2010 Archives

Recycling Flyers Get Personal

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SAGE Ambassadors and other sustainability advocates have been working to cover the campus with recycling signage, informing faculty, staff, students and visitors that glass, aluminum, paper, cardboard, and plastic can all be tossed into the same recycling bin. These flyers will be used in the interim, until the University gets all new, uniform recycling bins. When posting these signs in 6045 S. Kenwood, a LEED Gold certified building, a sustainability staff member came across this personalized flyer. 

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To download a recycling sign to print and post in your building, click here (the general flyer for bulletin boards) and here (the flyer for containers). Thanks for your help!

Joe and Rika Mansueto Library Tour

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As a special treat, a few members of the Sustainability Office had the opportunity to tour the construction site of the new Joe and Rika Mansueto Library. Our guide was Mike Natarus, the Senior Project Manager for the Mansueto Library Project. He was incredibly knowledgeable and informative about the project, partly because he has been working on this amazing new structure for more than four years, from the initial planning stages through the present. One of the most impressive aspects of this project is the fact that we will be the only top academic research library in America to house its entire library collection on campus. This is important to the Office of Sustainability because it will help reduce the university's carbon footprint by reducing the cost of transporting books, both monetary and environmental, to nothing.

First, we went down some 50 feet into the depths of the concrete vault where more than 3.5 million volumes of books will one day reside. The enormous space, approximately six stories deep and several football fields long, is more or less empty right now. 


shola looking up at space.jpgWe saw the five massive crane-like machines that will travel up and down the aisles of stacks retrieving and replacing bins of books for users on the ground floor.

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We walked through walls more than two feet thick that will help control temperature and humidity in the underground structure. 

katie with the wall.jpgWe stood next to and learned about the massive tendons that will brace the building from excessive rainwater and general implosion.

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These tendons stretch underground all the way across Ellis Ave and Bartlett quad, respectively, to keep the building in place.

Next, Mike brought us back up to street level. We meandered through the base of the scaffolding before climbing the stairs to what will be the roof! The view from the top of the dome was quite astounding, and it is a sight few people will have the opportunity to witness because soon, the glass will be in place, the scaffolding will come down and the ceiling will be rendered inaccessible.

colleen on the roof.jpgWe learned that the dome is comprised of only straight pieces--none of the metal or glass is curved at all.


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It will simply appear curved thanks to the incredible design concepts of Chicago-based architect Helmut Jahn and the beautiful structural engineering of Werner Sobeka German firm that took on this enormous and arduous task.

The library is scheduled to be complete within the next academic year. Having seen the construction site of this library, I definitely encourage you to take advantage of the natural light reading room, the special collections area and, of course, the robots that will bring you books from a concrete vault six stories below the earth. The library is bound to be beautiful and used rigorously by the whole community. Our tour of the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library Project was a great learning experience for all and a fun exploration into the power of human ingenuity.



University's First E-waste Recycling Event a Huge Success!

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University and community members recycled nearly 23,000 lbs of e-waste and other items at our event on May 7th. The event was a partnership between the Office of Sustainability, Facilities Services, and the Office of Civic Engagement. Because there are few options for recycling e-waste on the South Side, the event was offered to the University community as an opportunity to responsibly dispose of difficult-to-recycle items. For more information on the event, click here.

recyclingevent-unloadingtruck.jpgA truck load of e-waste was collected at an area condominium association and was unloaded at the event.

recyclingevent-styrofoam.jpg691 pounds of Styrofoam were collected.


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52 of the above computer monitors were dropped off for recycling, in addition to 15 LCD monitors.

recyclingevent-travelmug.jpgFax machines, watches, telephones and cords were also recycled--in addition to several pick axes!

recyclingevent-dropoffcontainers.jpgDrop-off containers, which were placed at Ratner, SSA, Pick Hall, and Harper Memorial Libaray throughout the week, filled up quickly with e-waste from folks who couldn't make the event.

recyclingevent-couch.jpg"Excuse me," said six-year-old Gabriel, "we'd like to recycle this couch."

recyclingevent-loading.jpgAt the conclusion of the event, pallets with 4' x 4' x 4' boxes of recyclables were loaded into a 52'-long truck. Recyclables were then transported to Intercon Solutions' Chicago Heights processing facility, where all materials and their components were taken apart my hand and securely recycled.