Rekik Ziku
Contributing Writer
Have you ever wondered why there are posters around this college telling you to recycle less? The Recycling Committee, a subcommittee of the Sustainability Committee at the College, is advocating for a change in the culture of recycling around campus to save the College from spending excessive amount of money. Even though recycling is quite important, the fact that unnecessary items are being recycled on campus is affecting our school.
“Approximately 15 years ago, the College had a recycling program that was organized by students. Students would empty recycling bins in each building,” said Beau Mastrine, Director of Grounds and Campus Ground. “That program slowly faded and 10 years ago, the trash and recycling were co-mingled, due to a lack of interest.” It is costing The College of Wooster approximately $3,000 per month to recycle due to the recycling dumpsters being so heavily contaminated with trash.
“Recycling on campus right now is what we have been calling an ‘opt out’ system, meaning that the default is to recycle,” Mastrine added. Recycling has been something that was assumed everyone knows how to do. As such, bins are located all around campus to make it available to all, which contributed to the contamination even more.
“The biggest change with our recycling program over the last 12 months is the tolerance to materials that are not recyclable, that are placed in the recycling bins,” said Mastrine. “A year ago, contamination fees began to be applied to our monthly bill. We have made many efforts to communicate to the campus last year about contamination. This past year we have made presentations at ARCH and to the RAs.” The Recycling Committee is currently working on informing the college community on the appropriate way to recycle. The expectation after winter break is to be able to recycle appropriately.
“Students seem to be oblivious to the harm that they are causing,” said Grace O’Leary ’20. “They simply do not care to take the second to think about whether something belongs in a trash bin or a recycling bin.”
Mia Stevens ’20 believes that “the College community needs to become more conscious of recycling and aware of their waste stream. Right now, the community is either misinformed or does not take the time to think about whether something is recyclable or not.”
The Recycling Committee aims to switch to an opt-in system where “only the people who know how to recycle will take the time to do so,” said Stevens. They plan on decreasing the number of recycling bins on campus and have the recycling dumpster available. In addition, they are working with Custodial Services on how best to get recyclable materials out of the building, since plastic bags are the main factors affecting the recycling program.
Despite the fact that it takes a lot of effort to recycle, it is vital for the Recycling Committee and our community to ensure that only recyclable items are being recycled because it will save our college from paying contamination fees.
With their new motto “When in doubt throw it out,” the Recycling Committee recommends to either recycle properly or not recycle at all. Instead of recycling a piece of trash, it is preferred to trash a recyclable item.
“We have three major points we want the campus community to know about recycling: Recycle Right, Lose the Liners and Take it Out” said O’Leary.The Recycling Committee emphasized the items that qualify to join the recycling bin: cans, plastic bottles, paper and cardboard. Furthermore, it is important to remove the plastic bag liners and take responsibility in disposing of it at the recycling dumpster.