UIT Shows Support for Green Initiatives

University Information Technology promotes sustainability. In supporting that goal, department personnel worked to recycle more than 2,200 pounds of copper cable recovered during a cabling project in a UH building. Extracted from walls and ceilings, the copper wiring was salvaged for recycling, and also brought in a modest amount of revenue for UH.

A Houston company involved in reacovering scrap metal arranged to strip the copper cable for reuse. This activity followed UIT's cable donation to the Green UH recycling program supported by Johnnie King, supervisor of solid waste and recycling, a service unit within Central Facilities Services in Plant Operations Facilities Management.

Originating from an installation of copper cabling at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, the recycled cabling brought about $1,100 to UH when sold to Bodner Metal & Iron Corporation in Houston. A contractor, Triumph Cabling Systems, collected the cable while installing new cabling for the communications school. Category 3 cabling was replaced with Category 6, which supports more advanced communications functions.

"UIT makes every attempt to recover obsolete data and voice cables remaining in walls and ceilings as renovation and cabling refresh projects are underway," according to Mark Aycock, manager of UIT facilities and environmentals.