Reclaiming Recycling at Oxy

As many of my fellow classmates have noted in their blogs, the current recycling program at our college is uninspiring and unacceptable for any university, let alone one that claims its school colors to be black, orange and "green" on the front page of its website. As a member of the group working on raising awareness and improving recycling on our campus, I have been given an eye-opening lesson into the disfunction that presently is our on-campus recycling system. As others in my group have mentioned, many popular and perfectly recyclable items (all to-go containers, Green Bean plastic cups, etc) on campus are not accepted by Oxy's designated recycling company, SoCal Recycling. Not only does this company not recycle these items but if a bag of recycling contains to many of these types of materials, then they will simply throw the whole bag away. It is shameful and hypocritical that Oxy calls itself a "green oasis" in urban Los Angeles and yet neglects as basic a sustainability principle as recycling by selecting a bare-bones recycling partnership with a company that only takes CRV materials. We can and need to do better! Luckily there are many within our faculty, staff and student body who want to do the right thing and support a top-teir recycling program at our college. Both Housing and Facilities go above and beyond in their efforts to make our current broken system work as best they can. We need further student engagement in the disposal of our own personal waste and stronger leadership at the administrative level to guide our school toward the goal of environmental sustainability. We cannot simply rest on our school's historic progressive ideals and actions. We NEED a 21st-century recycling system at our school if Oxy is going to remain a leader in environmental advocacy and social justice.

waste and recyling (by alex)

(posted on behalf of alex)

Being a part of the recycling group, I paid special attention to the Disposal section. Everyone else has talked a lot about the book so I have decided to share a little story with you that relates to the book. I hope you enjoy:

I was having a nice Socratic dialogue with one of my friends a few weeks ago about recycling and how horrible Oxy’s program is. He shared the frustration with me but admitted that he neither recycled nor put his garbage in the bins. He simply leaves it out. My immediate reaction was, naturally, “wow, you’re a bad person” (I’m keeping this PG). But when he explained to me his reasoning, I found it to be very profound and interesting. He doesn’t recycle or throw away his trash because proper placement of discarded items is not the issue. For the most part (that is, excluding hippies like us), people have disposal services for sanitation and to preserve order. If we did not have these services, people would just throw trash on the street and we would have cities flooded with garbage (if you don’t believe me, read about the Five Points neighborhood in the early 19th century). We can agree, then, that these services are a good because we maintain (for the most part) clean, healthy, and orderly environments. The consequence of this, however, is that we simply put our trash in a bin and then it becomes someone else’s problem and no longer our responsibility. By hiding our trash in a bin, it gets taken to the landfill which is the area we have designated to pollute instead of our home. Leonard talks about the host of environmental problems there, including toxics seeping into the groundwater, the excess of methane gas, and the use of incinerators. But these are for the most part inconsequential for us. Once we put them in the bin they are out of sight, out of mind. Back to my friend, he pollutes the campus to counter this, to put the consequences of trash “in sight and in mind”. He sees his actions as a form of culture jamming, whereby someone sees the trash and so is forced, even if only for a second, to consider pollution and how trash is affecting their life.

Is he justified in doing this? You tell me. If only one person is doing it then it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. But I think this story does force you to ask some questions about the production system as a whole that Leonard outlines in her book. Particularly, it asks us to reshape our perception of personal environmental responsibility. I hope this picks at your brain a little bit, and I hope that maybe we can one day figure out a way to solve this problem.

more thoughts on recycling (by alex)

(posted on behalf of alex)

I have been working with the recycling group to improve the Oxy’s recycling program. I’m sure you have read my other group members posts so I will try not to be too repetitive, but we can’t emphasize enough how regressive the system is here. The company that we have now, SoCal Recycling, exists as a for-profit company. Oxy uses them because their services are free. We throw things into the bin, they pick them up and sell them back for money. We do this because it is the easiest and cheapest solution. But, as we tend to see when it comes to environmental issues, that mentality is not quite appropriate. Because Oxy has taken no steps to educate us, the students, on their recycling policy, we continue to recycle the way we do at home, which at least where I’m from is just throwing everything into one bin and letting the company take care of it. Because most of us continue to do this at Oxy, SoCal is considering dropping us because it so much of what we attempt to recycle is to them only considered trash.
It has been my job to contact outside companies. When I spoke to SCR, they told me that they only take CRVs (and on a side note offered to pick up out paper recycling as long as we had a machine that would bale it. Lol). I spoke to the city’s official recycling company and they weren’t very helpful. Apparently LA has the best recycling program in the country, but the woman I talked to wasn’t sure if they could pick ours up or how much it would cost. They then sent us a list of other companies to look at without giving us a quote.
As you can see changing the recycling policy at Oxy is very challenging. While we have gotten the ball rolling, I plan to continue this project next semester and I hope some of you will join us. In the meantime, get the word out to your friends while we are getting the signs up. Hopefully when people find out how ridiculous it is they will start to voice their discontent.

Apathy

I feel that people are becoming more aware of the problems that discourage a sustainable evironment. This is a very frusturating aspect to making the world a better place for everyone. A lot of people just feel that it is not their responsiblity and take an apathetic stance toward recycling and other initiatives. If we could start small and take baby steps in the directions of sustainability we could accomplish a lot. Force feeding things like energy reduction and housing materials is not a effective way to get the point across. There needs to be a mass movement toward cooperation to accomplish sustainable development. A reduction in red tape politics at the local and national level would also increase the support for sustainable living. Jumping through hoops is the biggest obstacle for groups wanting change. Just facing the political side of this project posses a threatening barrier for many people wanting to contribute leading them to become apathetic toward the entire problem we all face.

School lighting

The project is going well. We are now in the process of collecting the data we need to submit our recommendation. To do this we will look at the amount of lumens are being used both in the classroom/offices and the hallways of Fowler Hall. We think that too much light is being used and we feel that if some of the light bulbs were removed from rooms and hallways the school could save a lot on electricity costs. As part of our side project we are laminating signs to be placed next to the computers to remind users to turn them off when not in use. Our plan is straight forward and could effectively save the school some serious cash.

Composting Details

Like Anna said, we have been working on purchasing a unit that would dehydrate most of our pre and post-consumer food waste. Because she gave a great overview of the project I will talk about some more specific aspects of what we have found out.

One thing that we have been interested in while researching the dehydrating unit is what type of capacity it has for compostable dishware. We thought it would be excellent if the machine could not only reduce our food waste, but also our waste from the Green Bean, the Cooler and the Marketplace for take home containers. Unfortunately, it looks like for each batch of food that is “cooked” or dehydrated, only 20% of it can be compostable dishware, such as the cups that we use in the Green Bean. Any type of corn-based silverware could not go in the machine because that would need to be chipped as it is almost completely dehydrated already. We would need to get another machine in order handle compostables, or research further about having compostables picked up, which would be a great idea for a project in later semesters.

After talking to Amy Munoz we realized there were some other things to take into consideration that we had not previously considered. She mentioned that finding space to put the machine could be problematic. Even though it is not that huge, Amy said that the marketplace is pretty much maxed out on space right now. If we cannot fit it in the dish room, moving pre and post consumer food waste is going to be more difficult if it has to go downstairs for example. She also had us think about how difficult this would be for the staff, she pointed out that so many people have been working for us for over ten years so re-training for a whole new system can be difficult. However, she said that if this is going to make things easier, than it will be much better received. Her ideas were really helpful in making us think about things we would not have otherwise. She was also very supportive and excited about the idea, which Anna and I found really promising.

Limitation and hopes for the future

Especially after coming from 6 months abroad, I have time and time again realized that the Oxy culture does not really promote the sustainability and diversity values that it often totes. Though huge steps have been made with plans for solar energy and local/organic foods offered in the marketplace, it is apparent to me that there is a general apathy among students and faculty overall. In the current context of economic hard times and financial crunch, the need to invest in cost-saving long term costs is important. On the other hand, creating a mechanism to "green" our campus's energy use is a bit futile, since energy use is increased with more students, more appliances per student and increased technology used in classrooms throughout disciplines. By shifting our focus to cost-saving and energy reduction projects, we can create significant change!

--Kathryn Griffith

Composting Update

Elizabeth and I have been working to try and implement a composting device in the marketplace. The appliance we've been looking at is called the eCorect, which is a copier sized machine that dehydrates both pre and post consumer waste and can take up to 220 pounds of waste per day. After a cycle of 12-18 hours the machine produces a dirt-like substance that can be used on the Oxy grounds. Theoretically, this machine could eliminate up to 95% of Oxy's food waste. The end result is not quite a compost, but could be if we added wood chips or something similar to the machine, however it is still entirely usable.
We have met with Bruce Steele, who was actually the one who recommended this machine, Amy Munoz, the marketplace manager, as well as Steve Remeyer, a representative from the company that sells the eCorect.
We walked around the market place with Steve and looked at the logistics of where the eCorect could be placed, and asked him questions about odor, restrictions on what can be put into the machine, etc. Steve seemed confident that if we were approved by the school to go forward with this project the machine could be installed very quickly; it really only needs to be plugged in.
Amy Munoz is supportive of the project, as it would reduce our food waste and thus the cost of food waste removal. It would also increase the level of sustainability in marketplace food practices.
One conern we had was the amount of power that would potentially be used, however the power usage is low, and probably would have a lower carbon foot print than the amount of energy used to transport waste off campus.
Currently we are working to set up a time that works for us to again meet with Steve, the ecorect company representative at a facility that currently has an operating eCorect machine. Hopefully Bruce Steele, possibly Amy Munoz and Michael Stephens will also accompany us on this trip.

-Anna D.

greener bean update (by raquel)

{on behalf of raquel)

So as previously mentioned, we have indeed run into a few snags along the path of completing our project for the semester. Something that I have noticed from taking a class like this and also from trying to implement change is that, no one dislikes the idea of green initiatives- the problem is getting people who care enough to do something about it. It is easy for us to sit in a classroom and talk about all the things we would like to fix but we all know that talking and doing are two completely different things. Living amongst self-proclaimed liberals who “care deeply about the environment” yet throw away recycling because the bin is 10 ft further, keep all the lights on at home 24 hours a day, let the shower heat up for 10 minutes, and more, it becomes quite evident that being “green” is a trend. This sort of behavior is what Occidental engages in but on a much larger scale. It is frustrating to think about but it is in fact the case, Occidental College is a business who like most other businesses, cares more about their profits and reputation then their global impact. I think we can all agree that decreasing Oxy’s carbon footprint, isn’t the issue closest to the hearts of the those with the most leverage to do so. All this said, it is no surprise to me whatsoever that many of us have run into problems in our attempts to make what other people would consider, miniscule changes.

As Sarah said, we had received the go ahead in ordering mugs and plates for the Green Bean only to be halted by a minor technicality. I think that the most frustrating thing about this scenario has to be knowing that if this was something that the college or campus dining considered important, it would be completed instantly. But I will say that after four years at Oxy I would have probably passed out if things had run smoothly. All this said, we have completed our Green Bean Green Guide, which is ironic because its printed on paper, but anyways, with suggestions on how to make small changes that can help reduce waste. I do feel good about this project though because I do know that since I will continue to manage the Green Bean through graduation in May, it will be completed. Basically at this point all we need is the Green light (pun intended) from the inspector and we will be ready to use the mugs.
--Raquel Carrion

Fruit Trees!

I have been working on trying to expand the UEPI garden to the lot behind rangeview. While this expansion is still the primary goal of our group, it is unrealistic that we will receive approval and be able to begin working with the space this semester. That being said, we are not giving up hope, but are thinking of other ways we can make the campus more sustainable with smaller expansions of the garden throughout campus.

This morning we met with Bruce Steele to discuss replacing the existing, inedible orange trees located in front of Haines. There are a variety of different types of orange trees that can be planted in the area, such as Pixie Tangerines, Blood Oranges, and Washington Navels, all of which will be tasty and edible. On both sides of the walkway to the steps of Haines, there are two grassy areas, surrounded by hedges that would be ideal spots to replace the existing fruit trees/plant new ones. We were also thinking of possibly putting picnic tables or benches in these areas, to create a space for students to hangout.

While we do not have the layout of the trees placement, we were thinking about 5-7 trees could fit on the larger lawn and 3 could fit on the smaller. One of the main problems we are anticipating with the proposal of this change is the removal of the grass. The grass would need to be replaced with some other type of ground covering, such as mulch or gravel or the more expensive option of brick.

Another problem we are anticipating is the issue of rodents, but covering the base of the tree trunks with a 1-foot length expandable metal duct can easily mitigate this. Additionally, the height of the trees may be an issue, as well as possible shading of the existing hedges, and installing drip irrigation.

Another location we are trying to plant fruit trees is behind Chilcott, by the edge of the grassy lawn. This location may be more realistic to change, as it isn’t as visible. There are multiple ways we could use this space, either to simply plant the trees into the existing ground not removing the lawn or removing about 4 feet of the lawn adjacent to the path. In either case, this space can serve as a trial to test the resiliency of the orange trees. We were also thinking of planting asparagus or some type of bulb on the other side of the handrail.

The cost of these trees is very minimal; the main issue is dealing with the irrigation and up-keep of the trees. It is possible that members of feast would have to take responsibility of watering the trees, which presents a problem during parts of the school year when most students are not present. Moreover, should FEAST take care of the trees, the responsibility would have to be passed down to new members when existing ones graduate.

Like Lily, prior to taking this class, I had never spent time in the Feast garden. Having a garden on campus is a unique opportunity most students at Oxy fail to take advantage of. Hopefully through transforming these areas, FEAST and the UEPI garden will gain more attention and support.

Join our facebook group if you haven’t already! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=120188928037734&v=info

Water Bottle Fill Stations

Trying to coordinate everyone so that this project gets completed has been interesting. It was quite difficult to try to get everyone on the same page about where to put the filling stations, and what type of filling station we are going to install. Most of this is just from how difficult it is to communicate with a lot of busy people. It is a project that is going to take some work, but I think we've laid good ground work to getting at least a filling station in the Cooler and the Library. I feel it's most important that the one get installed in the Cooler. Because this is a place that sells water, and has no place to fill reusable bottles. It is currently the only eatery on campus that does not have an easy way to fill a reusable water bottle. Hopefully as more of these fill stations get installed the use of bottled water on campus will continue to decrease.

Unfortunately, we have run into some bumps in the project. Mostly because we cannot agree on a type of water bottle fill station. Bruce has researched some, that are really cool, but quite expensive. They would be very effective and attract people, because they look cool, but they cost of it, may not out way the benefits. It would be easy to just replace the spigots some of the current water fountains into ones that are able to fill water bottles. These may not be filtered or have automatic filling, but these low-tech options would work just as well, at a fraction of the cost.

Metro Project

As Charlie said, we've run into a few problems, but there is still hope!

The most recent of the problems is start up costs. After several meetings with the card office to work out the best way to streamline the TAP card application process, the initial estimate given was $2,400. We conceded that this cost would be too high to request from a $20,000 at the tail end of the application deadline. Although we were unable to fully get the program on it feet this semester, we have come up with a basic outline for what the tap card application process at oxy could look like in the future.

The first thing we hope to do it put together Metro packets for the orientation bag each frosh receives. This would include a TAP card application, info regarding Metro use at oxy and direct the student to the new public transportation website (for now its the blog we created until the web re-design is complete).

On the website will be a step by step process telling the student what they need to do in order to complete a VALID TAP application.

The card office has a agreed (pending costs etc.) to be involved a few important steps. First providing the student with a photo of themselves and also using the student's account (Bengal bucks, or flex) to take care of a small fee for the photo and the $1 application fee required by Metro.

The next step would be to go to the registrar and get a proof of enrollment before returning the completed form back to the card office where it will be mailed to Metro.

It sounds like a lot, but it definitely simplifies the process for students and makes paying for the card easier in using the students oxy account rather than out of pocket money (you'll need it to refill your card!) The student TAP card is definitely worth it anyway as it cost half of what a normal card does to refill.

So that's is obviously just a beginning step towards bringing metro to oxy. Other ideas building off of this are, to name a few: --Subsidizing faculty and staff cards (Cal Tech gives you cash in hand, if you present your TAP card at a designated site after commuting)
-Subsidizing cards for students who do not bring cars onto campus
-Building a relationship between oxy and metro (this is really important if we want to receive discounts from Metro, especially for staff and faculty since there are not discounted TAP cards available unless the school is associated with Metro)

I'm excited about getting more people to use Metro and public transit, but the most important thing to do is build up the hype and get people interested. So please follow our blog, tweet it, put it as your facebook status, tell your freinds about and of course use it to get your metro info. Here's the link again...Oxy Rides Metro!

-Malachi Krishok

Bureaucracy and the Transit Group

Unlike some of the other groups, our failing is not with missing infrastructure, or even with large amounts of missing money. Our failure is with bureaucracy.

Over a month ago, I e-mailed Metro asking how one becomes a TAP vendor, with the view of (this has later fallen in priority with our group; we instead have chosen to focus on expanded ease of Student and Vocational TAP cards). Simple question. I have yet to receive a response. Derek and Malachi have also e-mailed Metro, and they have received similar results.

At Oxy, it seems like we have to jump through hoop after bureaucratic hoop. Tamara Rice has clearly been no help in this endeavor. This means we have to deal with administration officials ourselves, often four or five people in a single week. Even though Jim Traquada appears to be amicable to the project, we continually have to go back to him before we can get anything done.

Also, I tried to get a little Metro Trip Planner applet for the blog Derek, Malachi and I have created, so I tried to create a blogger gadget. Could I embed the Trip Planner URL into a Google applet? No. Could I find an embeddable, url-safe version to put in? No. Can I e-mail them to find out to do it and expect a speedy reply, let alone any one at all? No.

Anyways, please join our blog, Oxy Rides Metro for all the transit information and links you need…expect for the ones that don’t work.

--Charles Bennett

Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure @ Oxy

AB 32 calls on California to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. One method identified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to help the state meet its emissions goal is the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. California wants 1 million EVs on the road by 2020, but at the moment, there are several obstacles preventing EVs from being a completely viable option.

One of the biggest obstacles is the lack of a sufficient electric vehicle charging infrastructure. While most EVs can be charged overnight at home, some manufacturers say that motorists experience "range anxiety" - the fear of being stranded once the battery runs out of electricity. Many others do not live in homes with garages and have no practical way to charge their vehicle. Establishing a California-wide EV infrastructure will address some of these concerns, and Oxy can be a part of this greater movement to change how our vehicles are fueled by installing a couple of EV chargers on campus.

Links:
Villaraigosa Announces Southern California Regional Plug-In EV Plan
Project Get Ready
The EV Project

Recycling Bin Improvements

I am working with the recycling group to improve and promote recycling at Occidental. My personal focus has been on surveying the recycling bins on campus to decide where we should add more bins and how to change the arrangement of current bins.

In walking through the dorms I noticed that there were actually a good number of recycling bins, albeit terribly labeled and often placed in poor locations. On almost all of the bins there was no labeling whatsoever, and on those that did it was mostly misleading. For example in Haines there is a bin that says "Aluminum Only" right next to a bin that says "Aluminum, Plastic and Glass." We now know that these bins are all for aluminum, plastic, and glass, thus these labeling issues confuse students and undoubtedly lead to lower recycling quantity. Hopefully by creating new, uniform signs this issue will be alleviated in that at least students will know what should be recycled where.

The other huge issue i have noticed is placement of bins. Often there are a few bins in the hallway of residence halls but none in the bathrooms, where there is only trash. This makes it so recycle bins are much closer than trash bins for most residents, and as a result a lot of trash is thrown in the recycling, contaminating it. Unfortunately, after talking with Bruce Steele, head of Facilities at Occidental, it is apparent that this situation will likely stay as it is. There are very strict fire codes set up by the city of Los Angeles that restrict the number and type of trash/recycling receptacles in hallways. Because of this it is often impossible to place recycling or trash where they would be used most effectively. Perhaps in response to this we could remove recycle bins that are far from trash bins, and instead put them next to the trash. This would hopefully decrease the contamination of the recycling. Ideally I would like to see Oxy implement a one-to-one ratio of trash to recycling, so that everywhere there is a trash there is a recycling bin next to it. However after hearing about the fire codes, this is unlikely to happen.

In other locations around campus there are few if any recycle bins. For example there is only a couple in all of Johnson and Fowler. This is outrageous especially considering that the most common items thrown away in classrooms are paper and bottles. We must increase the number of recycling bins in these locations.

Another possible improvement would be to purchase covers for all of the recycle bins that restrict the recycling to only bottles. So-Cal recycling takes only bottles so it makes sense to restrict the bins to fit only cans/bottles. Unfortunately this idea may be too difficult to implement because there are at least 4 types of recycling bins on campus, and finding tops for all of these would be tedious and costly.

In the long run I would like to see Occidental implement trash/recycling/composting-in-one containers. I have seen these at almost every other campus I have visited. They include three square bins connected to each other, effectively labeled trash, recycling, and compost. These bins, however, would require that 1) we have a recycling company that takes all types of recyclables together and 2) we have large scale composting. Both of these actions may be years down the line, but it is something to keep in the back of our minds.

Progress on an Oxy Transit Information Website

Over the winter break, Oxy will be undergoing a full overhaul of its website. Last week, our group presented the following requests to the communications department regarding information about public transportation opinions in and around Occidental.

1. Incorporating a Google Transit box on the my.oxy homepage (default set on public transit directions).

2. A revamped sustainability page (or separate website) with information for students regarding Metro discounts for college students and how to purchase Metro cards at Oxy. Information about Metro discounts and Zipcars should also be found on the "Current Students" (http://www.oxy.edu/x300.xml) page perhaps as "Metro Discounts and Car Sharing" under the Student Resources Column.

3. Including public transit directions under the "Directions" page (found at http://www.oxy.edu/x5495.xml)

We believe these requests will help boost Occidental's use of mass transit and the popularity of both the bike sharing and Zipcar programs. These suggestions are currently under review by the communications department, though they indicated a strong level of support for all of them. We should find out within the next week which suggestions will be incorporated into the new website.

I worked on drafting survey questions last week to evaluate the Eco Clamshell Pilot Program and have come across some issues with the program that have emerged the longer the program has been operating. One of the main issues I have identified is the problem with rinsing the container before returning it to the Market Place. Dorms have kitchen sinks, but they don't have garbage disposals to remove the left over food, resulting in a build up of old food clogging the drains. Even worse, some students are rinsing their containers in the bathroom sinks, whose drains aren't even large enough to allow the food to go down the drain. This is putting a strain on the cleaning staff who is forced to pick old food out of the drains on a weekly basis.

There is one clear solution to this problem: having students take their container to the cashier to get a token, and then dropping their container on the conveyor belt to be rinsed and washed by dining hall staff. There is one main problem with this solution. The program is still limited to a certain number of people, and under this system we cannot be sure that unenrolled students will not use other members' "returned" containers to get a token for themselves. As soon as the program is open to the whole campus, this new system will be an easy fix to eliminate the need to rinse containers before returning them.

I have started reading through the survey responses and many people have identified the issue of washing the container as the most major deterrent and inconvenience with the program. Many people have come up with possible solutions to help solve these issues. I expect to analyse the surveys in 2 weeks and in the mean time, I am drafting questions for interviewing the dining staff.

Emma Sorrell

Water Bottle Refill Stations

Trying to create more vertical refilling stations around campus has been an interesting and eye opening experience to the many logistical elements that go into a project like this. Our group has been trying to get the funding to not only purchase the units to convert the water fountains but the labor to do so. We have made good progress and are hoping that the units will be installed by December. Since all of the freshmen have been given water bottles we don’t have to worry as much about getting water bottles into the hands of the students. What we need to do is just getting the message out to students that there are going to be these vertical water bottle refill stations and that they should try and use them to lower the environmental impact Occidental has on the world, especially plastic water bottle consumption

On another interesting note, in the public restrooms in Range View the lights turn on by motion sensors. I thought this was really good considering I haven’t seen this implemented in any other public restrooms around campus. Having lights that turn on by motion sensors is a great way to conserve electricity.

I am also wondering why Occidental does not have more solar panels on buildings. I think Occidental will need to highly invest in solar energy even past the solar array. What do you think?

-Alex Forster

Recycling Revolution at Oxy

As Kosa posted below in "Scary Recycling Stuff," Recycling on our campus is indeed in need of serious help, and our groups original aim was to promote student recycling and increase the volume of recycling on campus.

Early in the semester, I met with Bruce Steele and Michael Stephens from facilities to learn about how recycling works here at Oxy. Mr. Steele and Mr. Stephens were very helpful and informative, but what I learned about recycling on campus was actually rather disturbing. Because we have two separate recycling companies for paper and for mixed recyclables, they MUST be separated or much of the recyclables end up in the landfill. After our grip audited the recycling situation on campus, surveying the recycling bins, we've realized that the vague signage makes recycling very unclear to students. Further, after contacting our main recycling company, SoCal Recycling, we learned that they ONLY accept CRV recyclables, which is essentially limited to beverage containers (meaning no takeout containers from the marketplace are ever recycled by Oxy!), and further, they accept nothing with any contamination. Due to the lack of communication between Oxy recyclers and SoCal recycling, the recycling company is slowly turning into our trash pickup company, as most of what they receive from us they are unable to recycle.

Part of our solution that we have enacted is to make a system of signs and labels for our recycling bins, showing students what belongs in the bins and what they have to put elsewhere (aka the garbage). While this will undoubtedly help the volume of recyclables that SoCal recycling receives, it is still a system that sends a large amount of recyclable goods to the landfills (plastic food containers, plastic packaging, bags, etc.) Thus, we are now moving towards the adoption of a new recycling system/company at Occidental, one that accepts all recyclable goods, similar to the city of LA's system.

This task is much bigger than we initially thought with our simple recycling education campaign. However, Occidental is so far behind the times with recycling, that this is no longer an issue that can simply be shrugged off. That being said, this issue is much larger than 5 UEP 246 students can handle on their own. While we are currently awaiting a response from Bruce Steele and Michael Stephens about adopting a new recycling company, we need as much support as possible. Please, continue to recycle any and every glass, aluminum, and plastic bottles/cans, recycle paper only in the paper recycling bins, and spread the word to everyone about the recycling situation that's occurring on our campus!

Mural In the Bike Station

Getting a mural started on campus is way harder than I had ever expected. The most difficult thing about the process is getting in contact with important people and making sure your partners are committed. Recently, my muralist who designed the mural bailed on me and now I have to design the mural all by myself or find a new artist. This set me back so much! I am very nervous that I will barely finish this mural by the end of the semester. All I want to do is make a nice mural for the bike station to promote bike sharing on campus! I believe that if I can make this mural happen it will help the bike community on campus so much!

Biking on campus may not be the easiest form of transportation due to our campus' hillside landscape, but having bike is great for getting around lower campus and all of Eagle Rock. Once bike sharing increases on campus, people will realize how fun and useful it can be! It would be a lot fun to plan a biking trip to the grocery store or even the park. I feel like we need to educate the students about bike sharing and even educated the students about cool locations where they can bike to from campus. Many freshmen do not know anything about the area surrounding oxy, but if we show them it will spark an interest. Maybe this will be another project for the bike sharing club next semester.

Take it easy and make oxy greener.

Chris

Gardens and Green Grades

I'll admit that until this semester I had never spent time in the F.E.A.S.T. garden. hidden near UEPI, it is easy to forget that its even there. Yet for prospective students a college's green rating is becoming more important. So why not make more effort to showcase Oxy's garden and expand it to the proposed site near Rangeview? A larger garden site would contribute to Oxy's green reputation and provide more room for students to become involved in the garden. In addition, last year, I hosted a prospective student who was impressed by the orange trees outside of Haines and disappointed to learn that they do not produce edible fruit. A new proposal to plant fruit trees on campus would not only result in edible fruit but would make oxy more attractive to visiting students. Much of the time, green initiatives are seen as tradeoffs between sustainability and cost or other concerns. Therefore, ways in which Oxy can become more sustainable and more attractive to prospective students should be taken advantage of. While Oxy’s green report card score from the Sustainable Endowments Institute has been improving, there is still much that can be done to make the campus more sustainable.
As for the proposed garden site, this effort is stuck waiting for approval from the administration and unfortunately there are those who seem opposed to the idea. The process of finding information about the potential fruit trees is also slow. But, to some extent I expected these kinds of difficulties. What I didn’t really foresee, despite my own limited experience with the garden, was the lack of student awareness of the current garden. While many students express interest in the garden and other sustainable projects on campus many have never spent time there or even may not know where it is. It seem that people feel that it is hidden away and they don’t know much or anything about the garden. While the proposed additional location would make the garden more visible, an increase in student involvement with the current garden might also be necessary to demonstrate why there should be an additional location. Because progress with new garden site has slowed, this unexpected issue of raising awareness of both the current garden and the proposal to expand it has become the biggest challenge.

Approval Schmoval!

Working on my class project of bringing ceramic mugs and plates to the Green Bean has given me a small (but significant) taste of what it is like to try to initiate policy change in business in the real world. Raquel and I have found the mugs and plates we want to order, got approval from someone in campus dining, and were all ready to order our new products where we received news that now the health inspector has to approve our sinks in order to wash plates and cups. Just as we thought we were ready to go, we’re now waiting. Moreover, every person we have been talking to about this issue of approval directs us to someone else to talk to, who in turn directs us elsewhere, getting nowhere in the process. What is shocking is that we are working with people at a very small institution relative to large companies where green initiatives are trying to get approved, and therefore I can’t even imagine how difficult it would be in those instances. I am finding myself frustrated because we are excited, we want to do this work, and are willing to put in whatever time and effort is necessary, but how this project progresses from now on is essentially out of our control. This, naturally, is disappointing. As a result, I have greater sympathy for people trying to make policy change in large corporations, and greater appreciation for the struggles they have overcome once change is made.

Scary Recycling Stuff

This post finds me in the midst of working on a project with a few others in the UEP Environmental Problem Solving class to revamp Occidentals recycling program. The original aim of our project, was to educate our campus community on ways they can improve their recycling habits, and also to work with the administration to get more recycling receptacles in better locations. Our first task however was to do a personal survey of Occidentals current recycling system. To say the least what we found was frightening. Until a few weeks ago, I was walking around unaware of the fact that most of the time when I think I am recycling on this campus I am actually further contributing to the landfills. Firstly, there are two separate companies that service Occidentals recycling needs. One company deals with paper, and another deals with our plastic, aluminum, and glass. When someone on Oxy's campus for example throws paper in the bottle recycling, that paper goes in the trash. I think this is a huge problem because students at Occidental often confuse recycling on Oxy's campus with the recycling methods they may have at their home (where often times all recycling goods can go in to one bin). Secondly the company that collects our glass and plastic recyclables, can only handle crv's (basically only cans and bottles), and cannot handle our marketplace plastic containers, or for that matter containers with food contamination at all. I know personally that I was guilty of both of the offenses I mentioned previously.

Until we further get the word out make sure you alert your friends that they need to stop mixing recycling items! Hopefully by the end of the semester we will have sufficiently informed our campus on the current system and also reformed it in some way.


-Kosa Goucher-Lambert