Paper Recycling on Campus

Recently I had a presentation in which I made handouts for my class.  They were excellent handouts.  Pleasing to the eye and very informative.  I worked on them for at least an hour and a half.  After my presentation and passing out my handouts, I looked around the empty classroom and saw that almost all of my handouts were still sitting on desk tops, not to forget about the extras I had made for people who had not bothered showing up to class.  Anyways, I collected all of the handouts plus a few other pieces of paper scattered throughout the class.  I then looked around the building for a paper recycling bin, but to no avail.  I could not find one in the entire building.  I looked up and down, high and low.  I went from building to building, garbage to garbage, and recycling bin to recycling bin, only to find recycling for cans and water bottles.  Now, I am glad our campus is recycling water bottles and aluminum cans, but what about paper?  Think of all the trees being wasted because our school does not supply paper recycling bins to classrooms, dining facilties, and most areas of residence halls. 

Comments

[sally tracy]

I think it would be great if there were encouragement for students to set up their own recycling centers within their dorm rooms. With a waste paper size bin for cans/bottles and one for paper. If these bin things were made available through the dorms or sold for cheap at hall spread or something. I think this would encourage many students to recycle things in their dorm rooms that would otherwise be dumped in the trash.

[Vikram Shankar]

It has become second nature for me to recycle bottles and aluminum cans largely because of the prevalence of their respective recycling bins. This is not as much the case with paper and I believe this is because, as Amanda stated, there are not many paper recycling bins. I don't think there is one in the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute building. This might be a good place to start.

[Amanda Shaffer]

FYI--the ground floor of UEPI has three paper recycling bins (one by the printer, one by the fax machine and one by the copier) one recycling bin for bottles and cans in the kitchen, and multiple trash cans located near the entrance, the printer the stairs and in the kitchen.