Project: Recycling

Here is a recent article regarding NYWEA's recycling project by Heather Raymond and Jason Hime reprinted courtesy of the Clarkson Integrator.

     Wait! Stop! What are you doing? Don't throw your recyclable bottles and cans in the garbage! Did you know that it takes approximately 80 years to degrade an aluminum can and it takes 1 MILLION YEARS to degrade a glass bottle? Fellow students, you throw out plastic and glass bottles, aluminum cans, and print your papers out 5 times on the printers in the ERC because you spelled your name wrong. Have you ever stopped to thing about where all that waste goes? Let's stop being so careless, acting like our everyday actions don't really matter. This is real! We can't just 'throw out' everything we are done with.
     Due to a poor perception of recycling on the Clarkson campus the local chapter of the New York Water and Environment Association (NYWEA) has decided to "get the gears rolling" and prove to everyone just how rewarding it can be. The program started last spring with three bins with the goal to make people more aware of their everyday actions. Redeemable soda bottles were selected as the object for collection but not because NYWEA was trying to make a profit. They were chosen because the number recycled could be viewed in a quantitative manner we are all familiar with-money. But concern arose amongst the Clarkson student body that we were merely collecting redeemable soda bottles to make a profit regardless of the two maple saplings purchased last year from the Refundable bottle program that now decorate the courtyard between Cheel and CAMP. The profits were not kept for personal benefit, they were returned to the campus. They were returned to you.
     The recycling initiative was expanded this year with the addition of three new bins. NYWEA's blue and green RECYCLING bins can now be found in the ERC, Rowley (by the vending machine), Camp (in the atrium), the Science Center (3rd floor by the café), on the first floor of the new Snell Hall, and in Moore House. Although the original initiative was to collect redeemable bottles and use the money to give something back to the Clarkson community, an increase in the number of bins created an increase in the number of non-redeemable bottles collected on a weekly basis. Bins in areas adjacent to snack bars (especially the one in the ERC) were receiving non-redeemable juice and water bottles in the same ratio as redeemable soda bottles. NYWEA members did not ignore this observation but built on it. Currently they are sorting the redeemable and non-redeemable bottles collected in each bin contrary to what everyone seems to believe. Each time the bins are emptied and sorted the number of redeemable vs. non-redeemable bottles collected is recorded. We need to determine this ratio in order to see if Waste Stream (the current recycling provider for Clarkson) would supply designated areas with additional bins specifically for non-redeemable plastics, glass, and aluminum bottles.
     But first, we need to prove that recycling on the campus is working and we, as a student body, are committed and will continue to do it. That means no more throwing dirty coffee cups, straws, old homework, and gum wrappers in the bins. NYWEA might put up with it but Waste Stream won't. Help us prove that Clarkson students do care about our future and intend to do something about it.