New recycling bins will save USU money
By fall semester, students at Utah State University will be tossing paper, plastic and glass in 7-gallon recycling bins placed in on-campus apartments – saving the school tens of thousands of dollars.
This month, Associated Students of USU passed a bill to put recycling bins, one for mixed paper and one for kitchen containers, in each on-campus, graduate and single-student apartment. The move came on the heels of a recycling competition USU participated in with Brigham Young University and 47 other institutions across the nation.
The university will spend about $3,000 to buy 1,504 bins, said ASUSU Diversity Vice President Gabe Carter. ASUSU will put up $1,500 to be matched by $1,000 from Food and Housing as well as donations of $250 from both the Residence Hall Association [RHA] and the Graduate Student Senate.
Most students don’t recycle because there isn’t any way to do so, Carter said, adding, “all we need is the means.” Currently, some 80 percent of the litter and garbage on campus could be recycled.
Last year alone, the university disposed 2,500 tons of physical waste to the landfill. To dump the waste, USU spent a total of $67,500. A significant portion of that cash could have been saved if the materials had been recycled, not to mention the beneficial effects to the environment.
Current campus-wide recycling efforts are “quite good,” Jay Price, USU Recycling Education Coordinator, said, but efforts in housing complexes could be improved.
Whitney Milligan, assistant director for residence life, said Resident Assistants and Peer Mentors, along with the RHA council, will set up recycling committees to be in charge of preparing a system for emptying the apartment bins. Large recycling containers will also be available in housing parking lots.
USU Recycling will transport the materials from the trash bin to the university-operated recycling center, located near the USU police station. The items will be recycled and sold to local companies.
Each year, RAs are required to create a recycling plan for their community. Now, they also will take charge of educating residents about the importance of taking time to recycle. Milligan expressed a desire for students to learn the value of recycling, and “internalize [its] impact.”
The addition of the apartment bins, Price said, is to “create good habits in students” and make them more recycling-conscious. The idea is to recycle more and waste less, he said.
“I’d like to see a cleaner campus,” Carter said, “I’d like to see a cleaner mentality.”
-acbeck@cc.usu.edu