Oxy’s current recycling company collects the contents of our bins for no fee. They do this in hopes that such a large institution will provide them with a large amount of recyclable products, which they will be able to use for a profit. Unfortunately, this means that the company is pretty cheap and does not sort through our bins. If a non-recyclable item (including the take out containers from the marketplace!) is in one of the bins, the company will trash the entire bin instead of sorting through it. Because many Oxy students aren’t aware of the restrictions for recyclables, many of our bins are contaminated and are never recycled. It has gotten to a point where our current company is thinking of dropping us because they have to throw out so many of our bins anyways.
Towards the beginning of the semester, our group met with Bruce Steele, head of Facilities. We discussed our current recycling system and learned just how inefficient it is. Bruce seemed very interested in finding an alternative that is more eco-friendly, but it is difficult to find a company that fits the college’s needs perfectly. After talking to him about the college’s needs, we decided to do some research on our own of some of the nearby recycling companies. We plan to collect information and then present it to Bruce. Hopefully we can work out a more efficient recycling system for the school!
One of the ways we began this research was by attending a meeting with other concerned Oxy students with the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation. We met with Environmental Specialist, Jinderpal Bhandal, who hoped to do a waste audit of Occidental to help asses how much we throw away, how much we recycle, and how we go about these actions. Unfortunately, due to the lack of data on waste at Oxy, this was difficult to do and we realized that it has been many years since we collected any data on our recycling or trash disposal. Because of this, unfortunately Mr. Bhandal was not able to do a complete waste assessment of our campus. However, we able to give him some rough estimates and he walked around the campus to observe some of our bins and disposal sites. Mr. Bhandal suggested that Oxy adopt a single-stream recycling program. This means that we would use one company for all of our recycling needs. Currently, we use a company called SoCal Recyclers who, although they collect our recycling for free, only collects CRV items which they can earn profits from. This presents a problem, as Oxy students don’t often distinguish between CRV and non-CRV items. However, if we were to have a company that collected both, the restrictions on what we can recycle would be greatly reduced. In addition to this, the task of separating would become less necessary and we would be able to save gas and time by only have one company come to pick up everything.
While Mr. Bhandal was not able to do a full assessment of Oxy’s system, he did give us some materials that were helpful. We were given a book that contained information on locating an efficient recycler for larger businesses (like a college campus) and included a list of questions to ask, in addition to a list of local recyclers. We are currently in the process of narrowing down this group, as well as doing research on our own, in the hopes of compiling a list of about three recyclers that we think would best suit Oxy’s needs. The booklet we were given had a list of about 20 recyclers and so far we have narrowed down that list to all companies within 10 miles of Oxy. We are also waiting to hear back from Mr. Bhandal for a more comprehensive and up-to-date list of local recyclers.
In addition to this, April signifies the beginning of World Earth Month. Every year, students from our class put up presentations and exhibits on the quad on April 22nd (Earth Day). This year, we're going to have a wide variety of activities from transportation education to recycling. Our group has decided to focus on activities that will really integrate the Oxy community into the current recyling program on campus, including spreading awareness, art competitions and demonstrations. The art competition is on the theme of recycling, with a mandate that one of the components of the piece be recycled. We will also be having competitions to sort recyclables and signable pledges to commit to begin recycling this month.
--Sara, Rachel, and Marisha
and perhaps a next step after identifying a better recycling company is exploring waste reduction strategies like limiting plastic water bottles and to go containers and reuse strategies like the other group in your class is planning. Also, whatever company oxy works with should be required to provide better data.
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