Campus recycling effort must be made
Imagine, after you’ve finished immersing yourself in every detail of this issue of Wingspan—articles, advertisements and all—you could save the environment by disposing of this newspaper. Think we’re kidding?
Seriously, after you check out the remaining 28 pages, we encourage you to clip a few coupons and toss this issue, but not into a trash can—into a recycle bin.
You may have already read, on Pages 8–9, that Laramie County Community College lost its recycling coordinator in 2000. The position, funded with a grant, was a casualty of an employee reduction in force (RIF), and no one has been designated to fill her environmentally friendly shoes.
Although you may have spotted and taken advantage of random aluminum can collection boxes and paper-recycling bags scattered around campus, these “green” efforts are basically all the campus currently offers.
Along with being Energy Innovator of the Year in 2007, LCCC is currently the No. 1 tech-savvy community college in the nation. But if our college is so leading edge, Wingspan recommends it takes the step of wholeheartedly resuming the once-flourishing recycling program.
Somehow, after dropping the position nearly eight years ago, the college never brought it back. The issue at hand is not being innovative but actually doing the right thing by reinstating the program.
Because budgetary reasons eliminated the coordinator, the position may have to be filled by someone on a volunteer basis. But, other options should be reviewed. A scholarship could be created for the coordinator, also potentially bringing more outside interest from the community.
However, this idea has its pros and cons.
Making the organization student-run might work well, but LCCC is a two-year school. The constant turnover of students provides no guarantee of someone applying for the position each year, which, in time, could return the program to where it is now.
The coordinator job could also be incorporated into a current part-time position, such as a custodian. A part-time plant maintenance employee might also be able to take on the position along with other duties, as they may relate to the recycling job, such as landscaping.
But, although this would keep the effort at a more sustainable level, an employee has yet to step up to this position, and it’s doubtful someone would now.
Ever since Amy Perea was hired as health education coordinator in 2005, her program has blossomed with numerous informative seminars each semester. Her position was funded through student fees.
Although the thought is controversial, a slight increase in student fees could help fund a recycling coordinator. Those on the Student Fee Allocation Committee are trying to find ways to utilize student monies to benefit campuswide programs. Surely, this would fit that criteria.
In addition, we urge the administration to investigate whether recycling could partially pay for a coordinator’s position.
We think, along with hiring a replacement recycling program coordinator, LCCC’s campus would have both a more efficient recycling program and the ability to promote environmental awareness.
But, in the meantime, with your help, LCCC may be able to help save the Earth—with or without a recycling coordinator at its helm.
The best place for students to start would be the Residence Halls where so much of our trash is generated. Because recycling bins aren’t available in the lobby area, a simple trash can could be labeled for aluminum cans or plastic bottles. Students could then collect their recyclable items in their Residence Hall suites and, when disposing of their usual trash, bring reusable items to the recycling area.
Staff and students who don’t live in the Residence Hall could also utilize a recycling program on campus by collecting recyclables at their homes and dropping them off in on-campus bins on the way to their class or office. This would save the hassle—and gas—of going out of the way to visit a recycling station.
For many years, LCCC has participated in the Adopt-a-Highway program along College Drive, visably demonstrating to the community that LCCC cares about the environment. During past Aprils, when the college held large-scale Earth Day festivities, staff, students and their families filled numerous bags with trash from the highway and the campus. Now that pickup happens immediately before the Air Force Thunderbirds’ demonstration over the campus during Frontier Days—when fewer staff and students are here to participate—but rarely any other time.
The Student Fee Allocation Committee now requires groups that receive student monies to implement a service component. Participation in the Adopt-a-Highway cleanup would be an easy way to assist in fulfilling that requirement.
Furthermore, LCCC should get a better handle on the way it recycles beverage containers, both plastic and aluminum. Clearly marked aluminum recyling bins are adjacent to some vending machines; others are simply makeshift trash cans with a hole cut in the lid—plastic recyling bins seem to be AWOL.
LCCC does a much better job recyling paper and newspapers with containers or bags available next to computer printers and in the hallways. We need to put a similar effort into the environmentally friendly disposal of aluminum and plastic.
Finally, an intensive publicity effort must be initiated so that recycling is just as natural at LCCC as breathing Wyoming’s clean air.
In the end, a reinstituted recycling program at LCCC would show how much the college truly does care about the environment and the community it resides in.