Recycling
Recycling on our campus is a punch line. I blame both ends ofthe stick: poor planning by management and oblivious campuspedestrians. But what really gets me heated is that SMU spendsmillions of dollars improving our campus structurally, but cannotoutline an effective recycling plan for the millions of resourcesconsumed daily on our campus. The current program underwayresembles a stale PR campaign created in the early ‘90s toproject SMU as an environmently conscious campus. Seriously, checkout the Web site. It’s time to implement an effectiverecycling program as our campus expands upward and outward.
First, identify and target areas around campus that consumemassive amounts of resources daily. Here is a brief list:Hughes-Trigg fast food, Umphrey Lee cafeteria, residence halls, SMUBinkley apartments, fraternity and sorority houses and facultyoffices.
Next, get into the mindset of potential recyclers on campus.
Recycling is a recent phenomenon, especially in these parts. Asstudents, we know it’s there, but it has yet to become a partof our daily routine.
Here is a typical scenario. You buy a soda on your way to class,enjoy it during class and then trash it, or leave it in theclassroom for someone to trip over. Either way, the solution inthis situation seems obvious: Put recycling bins outsideclassrooms. While I think increasing the ratio of trash cans torecycling bins is a noble idea, I do not think it will work on thiscampus. It obviously hasn’t so far.
For one, I think recycling on our campus has not been properlyintroduced. Recycling starts at home. Or as we now know it, in ourdorm, apartment, fraternity/ sorority house or even at work. So ifyou branch out into the SMU community where you can reach a higherconcentration of students, the results will speak forthemselves.
As a student, I know we consume lots of beer, pizza,caffeine-enriched drinks — anything for a quick fix beforehitting the books hard. We throw parties, and the next morning wehave trash bags full of cans or bottles waiting to be dumped. Andnewspapers. I cannot tell you how many times I walked down theBoulevard last year and saw hoards of newspapers drowning inover-watered fraternity lawns. What happens to the remaining cans,newspapers and cardboard boxes after they have been used? Rightnow, they are being buried in a hole outside of Dallas. AKA, alandfill.
Why don’t we start addressing the problem and put hugerecycling bins behind the SMU Binkley apartments, fraternity andsorority houses and residence halls? Or what about placing a hugerecycling bin alongside the dumpster that resides in the Boazparking lot at the end of the school year? Create a place for thosethousands of graded papers and power point outlines to rest inpeace, or burn in hell, depending on the classes you took. Afterlaying the groundwork, divide recycling into specifics. Forexample, a paper bin, glass bin, cardboard bin and the listcontinues.
Our campus has the potential to take recycling seriously, ifit’s planned right.
Jessica Savage is a junior marketing and journalism doublemajor. She can be reached at [email protected].
