At Kenyon, students, faculty and community members strive to minimize their impact on the environment. Alongside personal commitments, the college provides opportunities and projects that encompass the whole campus, from dorms to classrooms to Peirce Hall, encouraging and enabling the whole Kenyon community to live sustainably.
Jump to: Recycling | Composting | Local Food
Kenyon supplies waste and recycling opportunities in all academic buildings, residences, and offices. The Kenyon College Recycling Center, located behind the Kenyon Athletic Center, near the athletic fields, recycles paper, containers (glass, metal and plastic), electronics and batteries.
All academic buildings and community spaces have tri-partitioned bins for disposing trash and recycling paper and containers.
Containers that can be recycled include mixed glass, aluminum cans, and #1 and #2 plastic bottles. Plastic plates and cups cannot be recycled.
All paper can be recycled as long as it has not been contaminated and does not have adhesive or plastic attached.
Cardboard can be recycled at specific sites within each residence, the residential apartments’ trash sheds, and in the first floor of Farr Hall.
Batteries can be recycled at drop-off sites around campus including Campus Safety, the Science Quad, and Farr Hall, between the Gambier Deli and the Bookstore.
With the support of Knox County Litter Prevention and Recycling and the Delaware, Knox, Marion and Morrow Joint Solid Waste District, Kenyon hosts regular electronic recycling days at the Gambier Community Center. The program diverts electronic waste from regional landfills and ensures recyclable aspects of electronic devices get a second chance at service. The program is open to the public.
Electronic recycling takes place behind the Gambier Community Center (in 115 Meadow Lane) on the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Winter hours (November - March) go from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Most household electronics are accepted free except TVs ($20) and computer monitors ($5). Items that are not accepted include dehumidifiers, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, equipment containing freon, CFL bulbs, light bulbs, chemicals, hazmat waste, leaking/damaged batteries, alkaline batteries, aerosol/pressure air containers, Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCBs), and items containing PCBs.
Kenyon is involved in a nationally recognized composting program. We recycle waste from Peirce Dining Hall to create soil for use around campus. The program diverts as much as 3,500 pounds of waste each week - that is over 56 tons a year. Compostable items are collected at the Peirce Hall dish return where they are sorted by AVI employees and sent to the composting center near the Kenyon Athletic Fields. In addition to food waste, napkins can also be composted at the dining hall.
The OGI provides an opportunity for students to compost organic waste from their residential apartments. If an apartment decides to join the program, they are given a small container where they can place their organic waste before transferring it to the compost buckets found in every residential apartments’ respective trash shed. The organic waste is then taken to the Kenyon Farm, where it is transformed into compost used to nourish crop fields.
Peirce Dining Hall offers a variety of fresh produce to the student body. Around 42 percent of food provided by AVI Foodsystems is locally sourced.
The dining hall has met the requirements for all the environmental steps it has implemented through the GreenPoints program, and it follows a comprehensive recycling system. The cafeteria composts food waste and has banned styrofoam.