“I’m not going to throw them out because recycling is very important to me,” Myers said.

“So right now they are just taking up space.”

This issue is popping up more frequently, so representatives from MSU’s Surplus Store, University Services and the Division of Housing and Food Services are introducing a campuswide recycling project.

The building of a $10 million-$15 million on-campus recycling facility will be proposed to the MSU Board of Trustees in January. Along with the proposal, groups of five item-specific bins will be added to residence halls.

“We will go in and evaluate the different residence halls to find out how many and where recycling containers are needed,” said Ruth Daoust, MSU surplus and recycling program education manager.

“We need to see what is currently being done and where the gaps are.”

The five categories are plastic bottles, newspaper, white office paper, mixed paper and cardboard, said Sharri Margraves, director of construction, maintenance and interior design for the Division of Housing and Food Services.

The proposed recycling facility would be located east of the MSU Power Plant and north of the Commuter Lot and will allow students to drop off materials.

Ideally, construction would start in spring 2008 and the facility would be open for use by fall 2009.

The residence halls will be furthering their efforts through the Pack-up Pitch-in campaign, which deals with recycling items students would normally throw out before moving out of their dorms.

Instead of throwing lofts away, the university is beginning to take the wood to lumber collection sites, helping agencies like the Boy Scouts of America, while the little pieces are mulched into the ground, said Diane Barker, South Complex housing operations manager.

The residence halls are working to get all students to recycle carpeting from their rooms.

“We have been recycling carpeting on and off since 2003,” Barker said.

“We struggled with it while trying to resell it, but no one wanted it — that was an issue.”