Recycling

Recycling Guide

The Williams College recycling guide lays out which items can be recycled, and where on campus to bring various items. Please note that college recycling has a different system than Williamstown recycling, which can be found here.

Trash rooms in horn — Color-coded Waste Room in Horn Hall.

What is recyclable and where is it collected?

Williams collects paper, newspaper, cardboard, plastic, glass and metal containers, and batteries for recycling. Recycling from residence hall common rooms go into the central Waste Rooms (often labeled Trash Rooms), which are typically in basements. Recycling containers for paper, glass, plastic, and metal are available in public areas across campus. Individual offices have paper recycling containers, as do classrooms.

Please see our comprehensive recycling guide for more detailed information.

Where does recycling go?

Our campus Recycling Team pick up the recyclables once a week and take them to certain locations around campus until our recycling hauler, Casella (formerly T.A.M.) hauls it to their recycling center in Pownal, VT. From there, the co-mingled plastics, tin, aluminum, and glass go to Casella Auburn MRF (Material Recovery Facility) in Auburn, MA to be separated. The scrap metal goes to Brownell’s in Wallomsac, NY. Paper and cardboard is processed and baled at the Casella facility in Pownal then taken to Westrock in Syracuse, NY. The final destination of plastic and glass varies.

What initiatives has the College pursued?

In 2011, Williams asked waste service providers to report into an online waste reporting system, which has enabled us to measure municipal solid waste, recycling, and composting and track our progress over time. We use that data along with periodic waste audits that the Zilkha Center has coordinated to determine trends over time and identify particular waste-stream challenges that need to be addressed.