Class opens recycling campaign

By Joyce Yao     10/30/08 7:00pm

Rice students' lukewarm views about environmentalism and recycling could heat up with initiatives of the Environmental Studies 302 projects, which have renewed campus efforts to increase recycling and raise awareness about environmental issues. ENST 302: Environmental Issues: Rice in the Future, is co-taught by Sustainability Director Richard Johnson and Professor Elizabeth Long. As part of the course, students must design a project that will help make Rice more sustainable. One of the groups is holding an Intercollegiate Recycling Competition, which began Monday and will last through next Friday to promote environmental awareness and recycling habits on campus.

At the end of the two-week period, all the aluminum collected at each college will be weighed and taken to a recycling center. The money received from the recycling will go to the winning college's green fund, money from each college including that from the ecorep program to help make a college more sustainable and to encourage environmental practices. the money allotted to a college for green projects. Pre-competition aluminum recycling levels were monitored to determine the best way to administer the competition. College sizes will not be taken into consideration because pre-competition recycling levels showed no correlation between the size of a college and its recycling levels, ENST 302 student Abby Banks-Golub, who is coordinating the competition, said.

Banks-Golub, a Will Rice College sophomore, said the goal of the project was to increase awareness on campus and also boost recycling efforts.

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"After the competition we will monitor how much recycling takes place, and ideally it will be somewhere between the pre-test and competition levels [of recycling]," Banks- Golub said.

In addition to the competition, the EcoRep program at each college provides $1,500 so that each college can pay a student representative to encourage recycling, sustainability and energy conservation. Most of the responsibilities of the EcoReps are to provide basic knowledge about recycling. EcoReps go door-to-door to talk about paper recycling in each dorm's blue bins, explaining what can or cannot be recycled and distributing informative recycling stickers.

The blue paper recycling bins located in each dorm room have been targeted as one of the main efforts of the EcoReps because they are often used for regular trash.

"A lot of people just use the blue bin as just a bigger trash can," Will Rice junior Donna Huang said.

Furthermore, even if paper is being recycled in the blue bins, all the contents will be thrown in the trash if there are other waste products inside.

"One of the biggest problems is that people leave their paper recycling bins in the hallway," Morrison said. "They may be recycling, but others walking past might throw something like a plastic cup in there, and then everything in the bin gets thrown in the trash because it isn't sorted."

In addition, some EcoReps have also proposed changes unique to their college. Baker College EcoRep Jesus Trevino plans to replace old paper towel dispensers with automatic hand sensor dispensers in order to reduce paper towel waste. Wiess College EcoRep Jeremy Caves and Sid Richardson College EcoRep Rebecca Sagastegui have provided five-gallon buckets for each room as a convenient means for people to recycle glass, plastic and aluminum waste at the recycling centers on each floor. Wiess and Martel colleges have hosted study breaks and awarded milkshakes or cinnamon rolls to students that bring recyclables or utensils back to the servery. In addition, housekeepers at Sid Rich, Wiess and Hanszen have been keeping track of rooms that do not recycle in order to aid EcoReps in their efforts to promote recycling habits. Hanszen has instituted Wasteless Wednesdays to reduce food waste by getting rid of trays at lunch.

According to the EcoReps, students have generally responded well to their efforts.

"A lot of people have told me they're really using the blue buckets," Sagastegui said.

Despite efforts to increase recycling by explaining recycling procedures door-to-door, Will Rice senior Dana Hoffman said she thinks this method is ineffective because it places little emphasis on separating recyclables.

"Some cities combine all non-paper recyclables, which makes things less confusing and more efficient," Hoffman said. "This of course costs money, but it would really help if we could incorporate this on campus."

Caves said he hopes the administration will become more involved in recycling to improve campus environmental practices. In order to accommodate the recyclable plastic disposable cups that are provided in the serveries, the campus also needs outdoor recycle bins, he said.

"It's a contradiction that the university is willing to pay extra for plastic recyclable cups but is not willing to pay extra money to set up recycling stations for them on campus," Caves said.

Sid Richardson senior Jess Coe, who worked with the Baylor College of Medicine and the Medical Center Recycling Collaborative over the summer to design a more effective recycling program, emphasizes the importance of students in making Rice a more environmentally friendly campus.

"Students need to continue to ... show their support," Coe said. "Otherwise, the administration would see no need to promote recycling.

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