In 聽a humid, airless facility tucked behind the The Ridges, forgotten memories can be found.
Used textbooks, bobbleheads, little league trophies and cameras sit delicately on a far shelf. The 鈥淗all of Cool Things,鈥� Campus Recycling and Zero-Waste Manager Andrew Ladd calls it.
A swirling art project that once was displayed on campus hangs above as decor and gives the stuffy storage facility life 鈥� especially on this sticky Athens summer day, when standing outside is almost unbearable.
Ladd and Campus Recycling collect the forgotten relics to give them a second life after OU students leave them behind.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very eye opening, more so in terms of the sure volume of stuff that we get through here,” Alexa Smith, a senior studying journalism who works at Campus Recycling, said. 鈥淎nd how everything still does have a lot of value, but someone, somewhere, thought it was completely worthless.鈥�
Campus Recycling, which has a staff of about 20 students, collects an array of recycled items and gives back to the Athens community.
For example, one local Athenian uses the boards and wooden planks from Campus Recycling to make chicken coops at their home, Ladd said.
He said a fiberglass molded horse head with a velvet cape 鈥� the oddest recycled item he鈥檚 seen in his three years at Campus Recycling 鈥� was used for a local arts nonprofit, Honey for the Heart, which organizes an annual parade before the Halloween Block party.
He added that Campus Recycling works with art students by allowing them to reuse electric wires, batteries or even those rare items found on the 鈥淗all of Cool Things鈥� for projects.
Other items that cannot be used by Campus Recycling are sent to Athens-Hocking Recycling Center to be turned into other reusable items.
鈥淚 see (recycling) as essential,鈥� Ladd said. 鈥淥ur local community, and greater society, can not continue on an endless consumer path. We live in a world, in a nation, in a region of Ohio, that has limited resources.鈥�
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