Additional
recycle bins come to The Beach
By
Luis Testa
Summer Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Forty
new recycling bins will be spread across
campus this summer to increase the amount
of cans and bottles recycled.
The new bins will be distributed throughout the first week of summer school
along parking areas.
Pyramid-top recycling bins around campus provide the students with a place
to put their empty recyclable bottle containers. This is a main source of recycling
goods at the campus, recycling coordinator Kristen Stava said. She also said
that every time recycling center increases the number of recycling bins, the
amount of recycled beverage containers go up.
“Last year we added 20 containers and increased our tonnage from 900 pounds
to one ton,” Stava said. “After putting more out, we would like to
jump to two and a half tons a month.”
Facilities management is working closely with the recycling center to help
increase the amount of cans and bottles recycled.
“What we would like to encourage students to do is take advantage of the
containers around campus and in many of the classes for cans and bottles,” Jon
Root, integrated waste manager, said.
According to Root, this will benefit the amount of cans and bottles recycled
because currently there are more trash cans around campus than recycling containers.
The Recycling Center also gives students a chance to be involved by having
programs on campus to make them environmentally aware.
“The Recycling Center is run by students,” Stava said. “We
only hire students and it has been that way since late ’60s, early ’70s.
Students get involved by working here, it basically provides jobs and a place
to bring bottles and cans and we have a number of students [who] do that.”
“They have a wall in the Student Union that they have jobs that you can
apply for, so I did,” history student and employee Kendal McCall said. “It
does feel good since you learn a lot about recycling and the environment.”
The Recycling Center also provides students with events such as the Recycling
Competition, where every semester student organizations can compete to win
$250 for their organization, Stava said. However, she said the competition
is not getting as much of a result as she hoped for. She is thinking of discontinuing
the program during the fall semester.
The number of cans and bottles recycled since 2001 has gone up substantially.
It has jumped from 0.7 tons in 2001 to 12.4 tons in 2005 Root said.
|
