The MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center, or SSRC, will host over a week of sales and events to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the combined facility and 30 years of the campus recycling program. Catch a special screening of the documentary film “Salvage,” Sparty On at the Zero Waste Tailgate and shop featured sales at the Surplus Store.
The week kicks off in the materials recovery facility, adjacent to the Surplus Store, where all recyclable materials collected from campus and the public Drop-Off Center get sorted, baled and shipped for processing into post-consumer recycled material.
This unique setting will serve as the perfect backdrop for watching “Salvage” and discussing the merit of reuse. The film follows a group of thrifty locals in Yellowknife, British Columbia, as they band together trying to save the town dump’s open salvage area from city bureaucrats determined to close it down.
“We are excited to celebrate our anniversary with this film screening because it explores the big issues that drive what we do with our Surplus Store and recycling operations,” said Kris Jolley, SSRC manager. “The recycling program has been around for 30 years, ever since students, faculty and staff petitioned the Board of Trustees for a permanent program in 1988.”
Since opening the doors, the SSRC has diverted 120 million pounds of items from the landfill. That is the equivalent of keeping 80,000 Sparty statues out of the landfill.
Still, too often much of what ends up at the landfill could have been recycled, reused or composted. At the Zero Waste Tailgate, the MSU community will see how SSRC throws a Sparty Party with minimal environmental impact. All it takes is good company, a cooler of food and drinks and a supply of reusable, recyclable or compostable cups, dishes and utensils.
The SSRC’s 74,000 square-foot center is the home of the MSU Surplus Store; recycling operations, public recycling drop-off center, offices and education center; and storage areas for compost, construction/demolition waste and scrap metal.
Follow the Surplus Store and Recycling Center on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter for details and updates. Email the Education Coordinator with any questions at deskakat@msu.edu.
