Recycling program
takes off

// news / daily - october 20, 2004

http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=14950&repository=0001_article
written by Victoria Degtyareva

Newspapers piled two feet high and soda cans stacked in a corner do not make attractive dorm-room decorations. But such sights are common in the rooms of recycling-conscious residents. While every dorm room comes with trash cans, students who want to recycle usually have to improvise.

But last weekend, separating plastic and glass and other waste got easier, thanks to a campus-wide in-room recycling program.

Senior Bonnie Johnson, the founder of the program, and a group of volunteers from Students for a Sustainable Stanford delivered blue recycling bins to nearly every undergraduate room.

The recycling bins, like the trash bins already in dorm rooms, belong to Student Housing, which is footing the bill for the recycling program. The bins cost around four dollars each, and Johnson said about 2800 of them were distributed last weekend. She said another small shipment of bins was being ordered because there were not enough bins to cover all the rooms on campus.

Johnson said that obtaining the funding was the greatest obstacle in implementing the program throughout undergraduate residences.

“The main problem was convincing Housing that the program would work and that they should fully fund it,” she said. “Eventually, persistence paid off.”

Johnson is currently working on expanding the program to graduate housing.

“Recycling is important because it keeps reusable materials from going into landfills, and instead makes them into new products,” she said. “It is one of the most basic parts of sustainable living.”

Johnson worked closely with Julie Muir, director of the Stanford Recycling Center, to see that the program succeeded.

Muir said the University currently diverts 54 percent of its waste from the landfill. However, she said that she hopes this new in-dorm program will help raise that percentage.

“I have been advocating the in-room recycling program for several years,” she said. “Many other universities supply a recycling bin in student rooms like they supply a trash can. It creates parity between trash and recycling. I think it will be helpful to increase recycling in the student housing areas.”

Johnson first started working with in-room recycling during her freshman year by putting together a pilot program in the Stern Hall’s Donner and Larkin dorms.

“Based on the pilot program, I know that a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise recycle take advantage of the bins,” she said. “Many people won’t take the initiative to find their own recycling containers, but will use them if provided.”

Johnson said that she and the volunteers received positive responses from students about the program.

“Volunteers reported only a few people who objected to having recycling bins, and many people began using them right away” she said.

Freshman Katrina Kershner said she was thrilled about the implementation of the bins.

“My roommates and I had already labeled the four trash bins we were given — two for trash, one for paper and one for cans and bottles. Unfortunately, we kept getting confused between the paper and trash bins, but now the blue bin is for paper and we have an extra trash can.”

“It makes me very happy to see that the University is trying to make recycling bins a permanent fixture in dorm rooms, as a garbage can is,” said senior Eric Chase. “Even if someone does not pay much attention to recycling in general, if there is a recycling bin in their room, they will see just how easy it is to recycle and will be more inclined to do it.”

Some students, however, said that even with the implementation of the bins, recycling was still too much of a hassle. However, these students refused to be quoted in the Daily.

According to Johnson, students are required to put paper, drink containers and other recyclable materials into their recycling bins instead of their trash cans.

When the bins get full, students take them down to the large recycling containers outside, usually near the dumpsters, and separate the materials into appropriate containers.

Jim, who asked that only his first name be used, commented that he does not have the time to sort and separate recyclables.

Other students, although excited about the project, said they have still not received a bin for their room.

Johnson said that she hopes the program will get students into the habit of recycling, so that they will become life-long recyclers and think more about how to live in an environmentally sustainable way.