"We process around six million pounds of material a year, with almost half of that being cardboard," Smith said. "Just to give you an idea, we're shipping out about two semi-truck loads every week."

The center, located on Green Way, employs about 90 employees, including 30 student workers. The annual profit from the sale of recycled materials is close to $300,000, Smith said.

The recycling center’s student employees gain knowledge of waste management by working in various sectors of the facility. They acquire practical skills by operating industrial equipment like Bobcats and strip cables to extract valuable metals from waste.

One of the recycling facility’s most notable exports is cardboard bales, which are reused in commercial products, particularly with the Kellogg Company in Battle Creek. The prices of these bales fluctuate like commodities on the stock market, necessitating MSU to employ a brokerage firm for their sale Smith said. 

The university’s recycling center stands as one of a few facilities of its kind, providing students with an opportunity to engage in sustainability, recycling and advocacy on campus. Beyond student workers, the center also fosters a network of student Eco Reps across campus, who actively promote sustainability and environmental stewardship in residential dormitories.

In addition to recycling university waste bins, the facility houses the Surplus Store, which is where all university garbage ends up. The store receives items that have reached the end of their lifespan, undergone upgrades, been forgotten about, or simply replaced.

The public can shop at the store once a week on Fridays, both in-person and online. Additionally, the store offers worldwide shipping for tens of thousands of items available on its website and eBay.

East Lansing resident Ransom Boinga regularly shops at the Surplus Store because he enjoys the variety of items available, leaving him with a new find each trip to the store.

"It's amazing, you can get chorizo, or stuff like this (shelving unit), you can find all sorts of amazing stuff," Boinga said.

One of the site’s most unique features is the Vermicompost facility, located outside of the main building. This space houses over a million worms of various species, which play a vital role in transforming dining hall waste into premium compost. The vermicompost facility successfully converts over 200,000 pounds of organic material from campus dining halls, Sparty’s locations, and local coffee shops each year, according to the MSU Sustainability website.

However, the importance of reducing waste and recycling does not always translate to the student population of MSU Smith said.

"We're always trying to educate people, the difficult part of campus is that you have turnover here," Smith said. "A quarter of your student population is different, so you're having to re-educate because they might come from a community that doesn't have recycling, or their recycling practices are different."

Still, some students build careers around sustainability.

Riley Davidson, an MSU alum who has worked at the recycling center since graduating, is the IT Materials Coordinator, responsible for managing the vast amount of technology the center recycles and repurposes. Davidson was invited to work at the recycling center following a tour of the facility while attending MSU.

"There aren't many places on campus that do what we do, it's a very niche thing that we do, but it's kind of awkward to say that it's niche when we do so many things," Davidson said.