Grounds and Landscaping

  • 2,000,000 square feet NDSU parking lots plowed and maintained by our team
  • 140,000 annual flowers propagated each year
    • The 36 annual floral display beds consume about 100,000 of these annual plants.
    • 4,000 annuals are sent to Mayville State University and 6,000 annuals are sent to Valley City State University for display.
  • Annual flowers grown by NDSU include:
    • Ageratu
    • Alyssum
    • Begonia
    • Canna
    • Celosia
    • Coleus
    • Dianthus
    • Dusty Miller
    • Gazania
    • Geranium
    • Ornamental Grasses
    • Impatiens
    • Marigold
    • Pansy
    • Petunia
    • Rudbeckia
    • Salvia
    • Vinca
    • Zinnia
  • 180 hanging baskets are grown each year
    • Almost all the baskets are Wave Petunias however, there are a few with Pansies and Impatiens.
  • 40 acres of sports field maintained
  • Campus Arboretum crew plant 50-75 trees per year

Heating Plant

  • Two coal fired boilers with a total steaming capacity of 150,000 pounds per hour
  • Four natural gas/fuel oil boilers with a total steaming capacity of 220,000 pounds per hour
  • Generates 540 million pounds of steam a year
  • Raw fuel usage
    • 25,000 tons of subbituminous coal or 250 rail cars of coal
    • 500,000 MCF or Dth of natural gas
  • 8 miles of steam/condensate lines that delivers the steam for usage by our users/customers
  • 13 full-time employees

Maintenance and Repair

The NDSU Maintenance and Repair Staff maintain over 100 buildings encompassing approximately 258 acres.

  • Change approximately 5,500 air filters/year
  • Replace over 350 lighting ballasts/year
  • Maintain over 200 walkway lights
  • Maintain 29 emergency power generators
  • Maintain 7 steam absorption chillers, 25 screw and scroll chillers, and over 50 condensing units for cooling
  • Maintain and monitor approximately 10,500 fire alarm devices including panels, smoke detectors, pull stations, duct detectors, and audible visual devices

Recycling at NDSU

NDSU currently has select locations around the campus that contain various recycling containers for student, staff and faculty.  Internal recycling collection includes newsprint, paper, aluminum, cardboard and plastic bottles. Individual building collection varies based on building function and programming and compliance with City of Fargo Fire Code.   Our Building Services team is in charge of use taking all collected recyclables to a central location in their building for collection by an outside contractor. 

We have approximately 82 outside collection containers for aluminum and plastic bottles.  Our Grounds team empties and forwards these recyclables to our outside contractor for recycling. 

Recycling efforts are ongoing and the success of our program is dependent on the assistance and commitment of our customers to use the containers and receptacles available to them.  We appreciate your help and support of the program!

  • 2022 – 297,466 pounds of recyclable material collected on campus
  • 2023 – 270,212 pounds of recyclable material collected on campus

Paper Recycling

  • The manufacture of recycled paper requires 7,000 less gallons of water per ton compared to non-recycled paper.
  • Recycling a four-foot stack of newspapers saves the equivalent of one 40-foot fir tree.
  • The United States throws away enough office and writing paper annually to build a 12 foot wall across the country
  • Americans throw away more than 600 pounds of paper products per person per year.
  • Paper is recycled into new products such as tar paper, asphalt shingles, cereal boxes, and of course, new paper.
  • Energy saved: Each ton of recycled paper produced requires 4,102 kwh less energy than virgin paper.

Recycling One Ton of Paper Saves:

  • 17 mature trees
  • 3.3 cubic yards (2.5 cubic meters) of landfill space
  • 7000 gallons (27,000 liters) of water
  • 30 gallons (1440 liters) of oil
  • 4100 kilowatt hours (147000 megajoules) of energy
  • 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of pollutants

Glass Recycling

  • Every glass bottle recycled saves enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for 4 hours.
  • Melting used glass saves 35 percent of the energy required to make glass from raw materials.

Plastic Recycling

  • Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour!
  • The average American car contains 300 pounds of plastic made from about 60 different resins.
  • Every year, we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap the state of Texas. 10% of the average grocery bill pays for product packaging (mostly paper and plastics). That’s more than what goes to farmers.
  • Products made from recovered plastic bottles include drainage pipes, toys, carpet, filler for pillows and sleeping bags and cassette casings.
  • PET bottles (soda, water) and HDPE bottles (milk, laundry detergent) are by far the most commonly collected plastic materials in community recycling programs.
  • 10% of all households have the ability to recycle all types of plastic bottles in their community.
  • 63% of U.S. communities have access to a recycling program that collects plastic.

Tin/Steel Recycling

  • Every ton of steel recycled saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal, and 120 pounds of limestone
  • Steel is one of the world's most recycled products. In fact, steel is 100% recyclable, which means its lifecycle is potentially continuous
  • Making steel from recycled cans uses 75% less energy than when producing steel from raw materials.

Aluminum Recycling

  • Making cans from recycled aluminum saves 95% of the energy required to produce cans from virgin material.
  • Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television, or operate a computer for three hours.
  • 99% of all beer cans and 97% of all soft drink cans are made of aluminum.
  • The average aluminum can in the U.S. contains 40% post-consumer recycled aluminum.
  • It requires only 5% of the energy needed to make a can of recycled aluminum as compared to virgin ore.
  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild the entire U.S. commercial air fleet every 3 months.
  • In 1994, 3.1 million tons of aluminum waste was generated. 2.1 million tons came from soft drink and beer cans.
  • Aluminum made up 1.5% of the total municipal solid waste stream generated in the U.S. in 1994.
  • Approximately 65.5% of aluminum containers are recycled in the U.S.
  • Most aluminum recovered from the waste stream is used to manufacture new cans.
  • The lifespan of an aluminum can is about six weeks. That means it takes only six weeks for a beverage can to be manufactured, filled, sold, used, recycled and remanufactured.
  • Recycling aluminum cans saves 95 percent of the energy required to produce aluminum from ore.
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