Samuel Casey
News Editor
As students returned to campus from winter break, they may have noticed many of the recycling bins in residence halls, academic buildings and other familiar places missing or relabeled as trash bins. This is due to an effort from the Recycling Committee — a subgroup of the broader Sustainability Committee — to make sure the right things are being recycled to reduce the fines that must be paid by the College for contamination.
“We decided to decrease the amount of recycling bins because we were being charged a significant amount of money for contaminated recycling,” Grace O’Leary ’20, a student on the committee, explained. “Not only was this contamination costing us [money], but it meant that Waste Management was not taking this waste to the recycling plant but instead to landfills.”
According to the Waste Management Media Room, on average, one in four items that people recycle are actually not recyclable. Contamination dramatically increases the cost to process recyclables, which is why the fees are necessary. The fees are also related to the disinterest China has in buying recyclables
According to Mia Stevens ’20, the other student on the committee, “With the nationwide changes in recycling [due to China] not wanting to buy these materials anymore, Waste Management has decreased their acceptable contamination levels. The College is getting fined for almost all the dumpsters most weeks, which is quickly adding up. Something needed to be changed to decrease the amount of contamination fees.”
This project was piloted last spring in Kauke Hall when the recycling bins were removed from classrooms in the building. Matt Mariola, professor of environmental studies and the faculty representative on the committee, described how this project was carried out and some of the feedback received from faculty. “All Kauke faculty and academic coordinators were sent an email detailing the changes before they happened,” Mariola said. “We received mostly positive feedback from that effort, with a few suggestions for tweaks, so we decided to scale up to the entire academic side of campus.”
Another email was sent to faculty and other relevant parties before most of the bins were removed during winter break. The committee has already received some feedback on this change.
“There does seem to be some concern about removing all waste bins (both trash and recycling) from all classrooms, since some classes produce things such as food waste, and others take place at times when many students have food and beverages with them,” Mariola stated. “If those classrooms are located far from the hallway bins, then it gives people nowhere to put their waste, which often means they leave it behind in the classroom, which adds to our custodians’ workloads — which was the opposite of our intention with this change!”
Regarding any feedback from students, Stevens said that she has not heard any formal feedback but has “witnessed confusion in my classes regarding where both the trash and recycling bins went.” She has not interacted with any students who are “truly upset” over the lack of recycling bins.
“Ideally, we would be able to have significant access to bins on campus, but frankly many students just don’t care enough to check whether they’re throwing trash in the recycling bin or not,” O’Leary commented. The committee has tried to inform students about what is recyclable through multiple Voice articles, posters, e-mails and demonstrations at Wooster sporting events and in Lowry Center. They also plan to make a video to further outline the reasoning behind the changes. The new system is “opt-in” rather than “opt-out” meaning that the default is based on whether people are recycling on campus or not.
“The decision is not the College deciding not to recycle,” O’Leary emphasized, “it is a way to encourage students to think about their waste.” Both O’Leary and Stevens explained that people who truly care about the environment will have no issue walking a little farther to recycle and it will reduce the contamination fess that the College has to pay — which total approximately $3,000 per month — according to Beau Mastrine, director of facilities budget and project administration.
Mariola stresses that these changes are only provisional. He pointed out that the changes will be adjusted accordingly as feedback comes in. “We are planning a meeting with the academic coordinators soon to get their feedback, since they are often the point person for faculty comments on their hallways,” he said. “There has to be a balance between having a clean recycling stream and not overly burdening people.”