In 2013, Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash and recycled and composted about 87 million tons, a 34.3 percent rate. For students, the statistic is similar, but could be better. If colleges are training future generations of students to be citizens of the world, they ought to have strong recycling programs that will lead to strong recycling programs in communities outside of campuses.
There are two main problems facing college recycling programs: knowledge and implementation. How do I know if what I’m putting in a recycling bin is actually getting recycled? In my own dorm at the College of the Holy Cross, each room has trash and one recycling bin. I always threw anything recyclable in the recycling until I saw maintenance staff put all the trash into the same bag. My recycling efforts were trumped by the fact that the system did not follow through.
The fact that my recycling bin is always more full than the trash bin used to make me feel better about using items that are not reusable, but now I don't know what happens with that material once I get rid of it. On the other end, students need to be educated: paper, plastic, aluminum and glass can go in a recycling bin but not Styrofoam. Students contaminate recycling bins because either the signage is inadequate and they aren't sure what to recycle, or they are too lazy to bother to do it.
Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam coffee cups every year, and 2.5 million plastic beverage bottles every hour. It takes more than 500 years for a Styrofoam cup to decompose and more than 450 years for a plastic cup to decompose. Because most bottles don’t get recycled, they sit in landfills for that long! If not managed correctly, thy end up in animal habitats, causing harm to the animals and the water quality. In one year, the average person throws away 23 pounds of waste per year just in coffee cups! Each manufactured paper cup is responsible for 0.24lbs of CO2 emissions. If just students at Holy Cross used a reusable cup for their daily coffee, we would prevent over 5,000 pounds of waste in just one month.
Two thousand pounds of recycled paper can actually help to save 17 trees, over 350 gallons of oil, and a lot of landfill space. Students need to speak up and fix flaws in recycling systems. Cities need to promote recycling and mandate it where they can. News and media outlets need to stress how important it is to recycle, to keep more items out of the waste stream, keep our communities cleaner, and even save money. How can I know if i'm actually recycling?
Since college students don't have much control over what happens to their waste when it gets picked up by maintenance staff, there are a few important things they can do to help reduce their impact in the waste stream.
First, reduce. Use fewer material items that have to be thrown away when you're done using them. Make your own dinner or go to a dining hall with reusable plates and forks instead of ordering out and getting all the plastic and paper that comes with it. Be more frugal with what you buy so you don't end up throwing something away that could've gotten more use.
The place where I, as a student, can make the most difference is this: reusing. Get a good water bottle that you can fill up at water fountains, and a reusable cup for your iced coffee. Even tumblers for hot beverages. Most coffee shops will give a small discount when a customer uses something reusable, because they don't need to use their paper, plastic, or Styrofoam cups. Not only does it prevent hundreds of bottles and cups from being thrown into landfills, it will save money! Reusing and re-purposing items can be a huge help in reducing the amount of waste we produce. There are tons of cool things we can do with our trash.
Treat the Earth well, and do your part; then, we can push colleges, universities, businesses, and associations to implement better recycling programs.
