The world is only so big and eventually we will run out of places to put trash. Sierra Club President, senior Genevieve Rodriguez strongly believes that recycling is an important way to decrease the amount of space that we use for landfills.
The Augustana community has the option to recycle throughout campus. Recycling bins are available from Academic buildings to Residence halls. However not all the recycling makes it to the recycling truck pick-ups.
“If food or liquid is found or seen mixed in with the recycled items, it is contaminated and disposed of,” said Deb Lloyd, Building Services Residential Supervisor.
Additionally, there are a few items that are commonly thrown in recycling bins around campus that are actually not recyclable. According to Rodriguez, plastic straws like the ones from the Brew by the Slough and plastic bags are thrown in recycling bins often but are not made of recyclable plastic. Lloyd also explains that styrofoam is not recyclable but commonly thrown in recycling bins.
“I think that more students are unaware of what they can recycle and cannot,” said Rodriguez.
According to Rodriguez, some students questioned if a separate truck picked-up the recycling at Residence Halls and TLAs or if the college was simply throwing it all away. However, the garbage truck that arrived at one of the TLAs early Friday morning solely picked up garbage from the designated dumpster.
According to Lloyd, the city added recycling pick-ups a few years ago which allowed for increased output of recycling from the Augustana community.
“Our mission has always been to recycle when and where possible,” said Lloyd
Each month Augustana recycles between 3500-7000 pounds of blended items and between 545-1700 pounds of cardboard.
However, every day students throw away plastic bottles, paper, and soda cans. All of these things can be recycled to save space in landfills and energy to produce new products like them, explains Rodriguez.
“I think an issue is that people who are aware of what they can recycle don’t care enough to do it,” said Rodriguez.