Reduce, reuse, revamp

This year students will notice an increased number of large blue recycling bins throughout residence centers and dining areas. \nAfter two years of hard work, the Residential Halls Association and Residential Programs and Services have finally reformatted the 10-year-old program, said junior Andrea Webster, RHA director of environmental affairs. The RHA and RPS program is separate from the University's, which supplies the recycling services for campus buildings, such as Ballantine Hall.\n"We started working on it last year, but we worked really hard over the summer to get the bins in place," Webster said. "Our main goal is to make recycling part of every student's daily life."\nRecycling bins are now located on every floor of each residence center and in Gresham and Wright food courts. The bins have lids and are clearly labeled to help cut down on contamination by trash, which Webster said was the recycling program's "biggest problem" in previous years. They are now located away from trash cans to ensure that students don't accidentally put trash in them. If trash is put in the bins, all of their contents -- even the recyclable products -- must be thrown out.\n"We want to emphasize the fact that the recycling does get recycled," Webster said. "We want to fight rumors that recycling gets thrown away because that's only true if the bin is contaminated. This shouldn't be a problem (now)."\nIn addition to being able to recycle different types of paper, glass, aluminum and some types of plastic, students now have the opportunity to recycle newspapers in bins located at the front desks of residence centers. The newspaper recycling service has not been offered in previous years.\nThe computer ink cartridge recycling service will continue this semester. Envelopes for cartridges are available at front desks and will soon be available outside all classrooms in residence centers. Students can simply take an envelope and mail in their ink cartridges. The money received from the ink cartridge program usually goes back to the recycling program, but this year the money will probably be donated to Hurricane Katrina victims, Webster said.\nRHA and RPS are encouraging students to make use of these new resources, and have been especially impressed with the success of the recycling services in the dining areas.\n"So far it's working tremendously," said Steve Akers, associate director of Environmental Operations. "We're filling up the outdoor bins. On pick-up day, they're always overflowing."\nSome students, however, have not noticed the bins yet, especially in the residence halls.\nFreshmen Christine Fisher and Cate McLaughlin, who both live in McNutt Quad, have noticed the bins and signs in the dining areas, but they have not found the bins in their residence hall.\n"I recycle here at the food courts because it's visible and there are signs everywhere," Fisher said. "RAs should advertise it more. If more students were aware of it, more would do it."\nBoth Fisher and McLaughlin said they were impressed with the number of people they have seen recycling at Gresham.\n"It's nice that RPS made the effort to do this and that the kids made an effort to recycle," McLaughlin said.\nThey also thought the RHA and RPS should ensure that residence hall recycling bins are in "convenient" places in order to motivate more students to recycle.\nWhile Akers acknowledged it's the job of RAs and environmentalists in each residence center and the student government to "set the tone" for the program, he also encouraged students to ask RAs and the front desk staff about it. He said the bins are located in the same place on every floor of a given residence center, but the location varies depending on the center.\nAlthough the program has made progress, those involved are still looking for ways to improve it. Now that the program has a solid base, they are trying to expand the program so it can give students the opportunity to recycle other things, such as batteries, Webster said. \nAkers, on the other hand, would like to cut down the University's use of packaging so it can reduce the need for recycling altogether.\n"The ultimate goal is to sell (reusable) drink containers in the dining halls and have refills available so we won't have to recycle," Akers said.