UT’s Circle K Club began a recycling effort in spring 1971. The response was great, and in 1972 the project was expanded beyond Circle K and evolved into Project Recycle, involving academic buildings as well as dormitories with approval of the vice chancellor for student affairs and the chancellor. The Physical Plant Department (now Facilities Services) provided a truck and driver for the weekly pickup.
In fall 1974 the Physical Plant Department assumed responsibility for the 29 yellow dumpsters and hundreds of special trash cans for collection of recyclable paper. In summer 1978 the recycling program was discontinued because of lack of effectiveness.
In 1989 the State of Tennessee required state agencies to reduce the amount of materials headed to landfills by 25 percent. Facilities Services, which had already been recycling bottom ash from the steam plant, metal from the plumbing shop, and electrical wires and other components from the electrical shop, placed white dumpsters in strategic locations for collection of paper, cardboard, and newsprint. In August 1990 a paper recycling program was begun in three buildings—Andy Holt Tower, Stokely Management Center, and the Conference Center Building, with the Knoxville Recycling Coalition organizing the program and collecting from the bins. In the first four months of the program, sixty-two thousand pounds of recyclable white paper were collected. Four large compost bins were built for the material cleared from the campus. In August 1991 the program was expanded greatly, and by February 1992, there were 69 buildings participating, and both white and mixed paper was being collected.
In early 1992 Facilities Services announced that UT would begin collecting aluminum cans for recycling, replacing the on-campus collection boxes for organizations such as the Boy Scouts and Ronald McDonald House. In fall 1993 Eastman Chemical Company began its partnership with UT to urge recycling of plastic beverage cups at athletic events. The 1993 football-recycling project (fans leave more than forty-five thousand cups behind at each home game) was the nation’s largest stadium recycling effort. In 1993 also, cardboard recycling was begun, and the number of aluminum can recycling boxes on campus grew to nearly five hundred. Fall 1993 also saw the first Student Government Association recycling center opened on Melrose Avenue. A second SGA recycling center was opened in winter 1996 at Massey Hall to serve residents of Massey, Greve, Clement, and Strong Halls.
In August 1996 Facilities Services and Waste Conversion Systems joined to provide recycling of all paper products—from colored paper and manila envelopes to telephone books. UT had reached the mandated reduction of 25 percent in flow of waste to landfill but was hoping to achieve a 40 percent reduction.