![Featured Image](https://vumc-reporter.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/reporter_12508_11.jpg)
Medical Center leadership answers the tough questions about what the elevate program is and what it means for the people who work at VUMC.
Question: Are there any plans for a coordinated recycling program at the Medical Center? The School of Medicine has set up recycling stations throughout its buildings, and they have a new contract with a recycling vendor. Do our hospitals and clinics have any plans to launch similar programs?
Answer: We commend the School of Medicine's recently expanded recycling program. We've asked housekeeping managers to plan a coordinated recycling program for Vanderbilt's hospitals and clinics, to include convenient collection stations for paper and cardboard, tin and aluminum and plastic. We anticipate that the collection stations that will go into our hospitals and clinic areas will be similar to those installed in buildings administered by University Central and by the School of Medicine.
Please be aware that the University has a campus-wide recycling program for computers and electronics, cell phones and ink and toner cartridges. For details on pick-up of these items, see the SustainVU Web site (www.vanderbilt.edu/sustainvu/).
VUMC environmental services departments recycle cardboard. In 2006, for example, these departments picked up and recycled more than 408 tons of cardboard discarded at VUMC, generating more than $14,500 in revenue that year.
— Kevin Churchwell, M.D., C.E.O. and executive director, Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt
— Larry Goldberg, C.E.O., Vanderbilt University Hospital
— David Posch, C.E.O., The Vanderbilt Clinic, and executive director, Vanderbilt Medical Group