April 8, 2008
American dream is green
What you can do to help AU’s recycling efforts
On a recent trip to the landfill near his home, Mark Feist was struck by the mountains of trash that stretched before him, dwarfing him, overwhelming him. Surrounded by old tires, yellowing newspapers, broken bicycles, and other treasures-turned-to-trash, Feist, assistant director of Facilities Management, thought to himself: “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“We have the choice to recycle, and by just changing our mind-set a little bit, we can make a big difference,” he said. “It’s not an impossible goal.”
Currently, the AU community recycles 43 percent of the nearly 1,894 tons of trash it produces each year. Given more choices, though—more opportunities to renew, reuse, and recycle—Feist and William Suter, director of Facilities Management, believe AU can drive that number even higher.
“We just can’t continue to expand dumps and cover the planet with our waste,” said Suter. “We have an obligation, as a university and as citizens, to do something.”
This summer, AU will roll out the first phase of a new recycling program. Even if your office doesn’t boast one of the new bright blue or green cans, you can still make a difference from your desk. Here are the “how-tos” of recycling:
At your desk
“The biggest myth about recycling on campus is that we don’t do it,” said Suter.
Trash—whether it’s thrown in the wastebasket in your cubicle or the recycling bin in your office—is deposited into one larger can by housekeeping. “People witness that process and they think, ‘it all ends up in the same place, so what’s the point,’” said Suter.
But, there’s more to it than that.
After the trash is collected by Aramark employees, it’s taken to AU’s on-site compactor, before being transported to a Maryland contractor, who sorts the recyclables—glass bottles, soda cans, white ledger paper, newspapers, cardboard boxes—from the items bound for the landfill.
“The trash goes down a conveyer, where it’s sorted by hand and through a series of mechanical processes,” said Suter. “It’s really something to see.”
Although 43 percent of AU’s waste stream, or garbage, is recycled, that number is actually lower than it could be, thanks to contamination. When you throw white ledger paper in the same trash can as your lunch, the paper can become contaminated by grease, food, and even water.
Thus, Suter urges that you use your cubicle can for paper, cans, bottles, and other recyclables, and deposit the “contaminants” in another wastebasket, perhaps in your office’s kitchenette.
“It’s a little thing, but it can make a big difference,” said Suter. “And once you get used to doing it, you won’t even have to think about it.”
Around campus
(Photos by Jeff Watts)
The key to AU’s new recycling program is physical space. The 220 cans, blue for paper and green for cans and bottles, won’t be placed directly next to one another, so people will have to think about what they’re throwing where.
Under the current system, Suter said, bins feature four holes, some for recyclables and some for waste, “so it’s just as easy to put something in one hole as another.”
“We want this to hit people between the eyes,” he continued. “Green will always mean one thing, and blue will always mean another.”
The new barrells will be placed in Nebraska Hall, Bender Library, Brandywine, McCabe, Roper, Clark, Gray, Centennial, Letts, and Anderson by mid-June, and will reach the rest of the campus by the start of the fall 2008 semester. Under the program, a new contractor, Georgetown Paper, will transport the presorted recyclables to their facilities to be measured.
“Recycling isn’t an art, it’s a science,” said Suter, “and through this new contractor, we’ll be able to get more accurate numbers to track our progress.”
In addition to the new cans, which are on display in the library, AU now collects used batteries, cell phones, and ink cartridges to be recycled. The initiative—which was introduced earlier this semester—features collection boxes in residence halls, and other common areas.
7 tons of newspaper