Recycling for New Students

Welcome to Mount Holyoke! 

The college has a decades-old, award-winning recycling program. While on campus, you will be expected to participate in this program.  Here’s how:

STEP 1:  What to do with your cardboard boxes

Chances are that much of the stuff you brought with you and most of the stuff you bought for your room when you got here came packed in a cardboard box. That’s a lot of empty cardboard boxes that you probably want out of your room.

Once you are done unpacking, please remove all packaging materials, flatten the empty boxes, and bring the boxes down to the central trash & recycling room in the basement of your residence hall.

There is a limited amount of student storage, so you may want to hold onto a box or two for anything you are planning to store.  However, before storing anything, please check campus policies regarding the storage rooms.

Detailed information about the recycling program in the residence halls is available on the Mount Holyoke "Recycling" web site.

Please note that if you want a deskside recycling bin to store items in your room (until you can take them to the central bins), those deskside bins should be available in the kitchenette on each floor of your hall. If you have any difficulty finding those bins, please ask your housekeeper.

For information about recycling in public areas of the campus.

STEP 3:  Composting and Reducing Food Waste

Mount Holyoke has a campus-wide composting program in the dining halls, in Blanchard, and at campus events.

Other Tips for Living Green at Mount Holyoke.