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
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I know that you and your group may have touched on this when you did group presentations, but is there any hope of switching to a company that would be able to recycle more than just crvs and could handle us mixing all different types of recyclables? Also, I am curious what types of paper the other company takes. Is it solely computer type paper or can I put thicker paper, like old tissue boxes in there as well?
ReplyDeleteI think that educating the campus about what can go where within our current recycling system is a great plan and really important, because like you said most people do assume the system here is the same as theirs from home, which it clearly is not.
Well said Kos, it has been a pleasure working with such a dedicated recycling advocate as yourself on our project to raise awareness and improve recycling here at Oxy. I also agree with Elizabeth's comment that switching to a company with a "single stream" method of collecting all recycliable materials would be ideal for a college campus like our's. Hopefully the efforts of our group will lead to a switch in the near future!
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