Miami’s Sustainability Committee is implementing a single-stream process next semester to make recycling a more efficient and prevalent option for students on campus.

The committee has placed single-stream recycling bins around campus, which can be found in King Cafe, King Library, Cole Service Building and Scott Residence Hall, as part of a pilot for this process.

According to Yvette Kline, director of sustainability and energy conservation, Miami’s goal is to see a reduction in the amount of waste headed to the landfill by 2017.

“Our current diversion rate is about 36 percent,” Kline said. “To meet our goal we need to get above 50 percent.”

Diversion refers to the amount of trash that is going to the landfill versus the recycling plant.

The single-stream process involves putting all recyclable products into one single bin and then taking the waste to a landfill to be properly divided.

In order to help reach the 50 percent goal, the committee is working on composting, according to Kline.

Kline said she does not expect additional costs for implementing the project after the first five years.

Junior Nate Ley said he thinks single-stream recycling is a good idea for Miami.

“The process seems like a great initiative, and it appears that the student population would be interested in doing something to help our school and our environment,” Ley said.

The process has seen some success, but within the next few weeks the Sustainability Committee will know the results of the pilot.

It will compare the weights of recycled materials from the single-stream recycling pilot results in Scott Hall with previous recycling competition events such as Recyclemania that were held last year campus wide.

The data the Sustainability Committee receives will help them further improve the process and see where they are making strides and where they might need to improve.

“From the initiative, it will look to see how much contamination of non-recyclable materials are being put into these bins, which will provide vital information as well,” Kline said.

This is will allow members of the committee to know the true weight of recycled materials that are being thrown away.

While talking about the exciting process in the future Kline said for students to “look for the single-stream recycling bins to be out campus wide this August. Students should look to utilize these next semester and try to recycle whenever possible.”

As a junior living off campus Mike Oleszkiewicz said he will be less affected by the single-stream recycling process, but he considers it a good idea.

“As someone who lives off campus I am surprised the city of Oxford and Miami University do not provide us with recycling bins,” Oleszkiewicz said. “The single-stream process does seem like an improvement though.”

Off-campus residences can contact the City of Oxford Utility Department at 524-5221 for a recycling bin.