PHOTO BY DAVID LI Recycling on campus is a topic many students care about. In order to maximize the recycling effort, the administration encourages students to dispense materials in the correct containers.
Recycling is something that many students on campus are passionate about. Yet certain recycling procedures have some
PHOTO BY CLARISSA OEHLER Kara Prachar is passionate about recycling, and always makes sure to properly sort her recyclables.
students questioning how much we actually recycle on campus.
Sophomore Joseph Tolsma, the Student Recycling coordinator for Hospers Hall, is one such student. He became curious about the topic when he found out that the recycling from the dorms is not sorted out in the same way it used to be. Through his own investigation, Tolsma heard rumors that many recyclables on campus are being mixed in with non-recyclables, and that some of the recyclables from certain public buildings such as the library have been dumped into the trash.
“I would challenge the administration to do a thorough check to ensure that Northwestern is for sure recycling,” Tolsma said. “And if not, a program needs to be implemented. Is recycling as good as it can be?”
Recycling is indeed limited in certain areas of campus. Nedrick Price, the General Manager of Campus Dining, said that food service is only able to recycle two things: cardboard and grease.
“A lot has to do with cost. Some recycles cost more, so we need to make sure we are being good stewards with our money,” Price said.
There is also an issue with space. Price said recycling must be sorted from plastics, aluminum and paper.
According to Arlo Van Beek, Campus Housekeeping Supervisor, every building on campus is able to recycle cardboard, paper, plastic bottles and aluminum.
Most recyclables on campus do not need to be sorted into different categories, although some buildings, such as the cafeteria and the Hub, separate cardboard because it is easier and cheaper to recycle large quantities of cardboard when it is separated.
In places such as the RSC, plastic bottles also get separated between bottles with deposits or liquid in them, and bottles that are completely empty and clean. The bottles with deposits are given to various student activities groups who are then able to redeem them.
All the recycling that is collected on campus then gets picked up by Orange City Sanitation and taken to the Northwest Iowa Landfill.
At that point, according to manager Larry Oldenkamp, it then gets put on a conveyor belt where workers pull off cardboard, while a giant magnet picks up metallic objects and a shaker machine sorts out paper.
From there it goes to hand sorters who pick out the remaining pieces of recycling.
There are many ways in which recycling can improve at NW; ultimately, the biggest responsibility belongs to the student.
“I’m all for recycling, so if we can help anyway, and students are willing, we’d love to help out,” Price said.
Getting students to participate, however, can be a problem, Arlo Van Beek said. Often students throw non-recyclable items in the recycling, which then contaminates the recycling.
“It’s an activity that requires effort. We are not able to separate the recycling when it becomes contaminated with trash,” Van Beek said.
Van Beek asks students to pay close attention to the signs posted on reciprocals so they know what can and cannot be recycled. One of the most common non-recyclable items that get thrown into the recycling is cereal and soda boxes, which are fiberboard rather than cardboard and cannot be recycled.
“I think there is always room for improvement,” Director of Residence Life Marlon Haverdink said. “Specifically, I think we could do a better job educating and promoting recycling among our students.”
The main challenges are getting the word out to students so they know what can and can’t be recycled.”
Maintenance workers do not have time to sort through contaminated recycling. When recycling is combined with the trash, it is because of contamination rather than maintenance decisions.
So what can be recycled? Almost any type of paper that is not contaminated with food waste; clean plastic containers with recycling numbers between one and five; metals and cardboard all can be recycled. Look at the signs posted near bins to make sure.
Why is it important to recycle? Nwialandfill.com reports that approximately 80 percent of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet the average recycling rate is only 28 percent. Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
By recycling one ton of paper, people save 17 trees, 7 gallons of water, 79 gallons of oil, 4,100 kilowatts of energy, 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space and 587 pounds of air pollution.
The 17 trees saved by recycling one ton of paper can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air each year.
Furthermore, the average American uses 650 pounds of paper each year; 100 million tons of wood could be saved each year if all that paper was recycled.
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours or is the equivalent of a half gallon of gasoline.
Tolsma hopes students will begin to realize the impact they have and begin to utilize recycling resources.
“The Bible clearly says that we should be good stewards of the earth that we’ve been given,” Tolsma said. “And if we take seriously being a Christian academic community, then we should not only be good stewards, but we should be models for others.”
For students, recycling may be as easy as knowing which items can and cannot be recycled. Making the effort to recycle is the next step.
