Plastic recycling program still unlikely prospect on campus

By Josh Bohling
Staff Writer

Lack of profit leaves it a personal responsibility

Imagine this: When you finish that bottle of Coke you bought from a campus vending machine, you throw it into a handy plastic recycling bin.

For the foreseeable future, your imagination will remain the only place that will happen.

Despite the proliferation of plastic bottles on campus, Facility Services does not collect plastic for recycling and has no plans to do so.

The reason you won’t see plastic recycling bins, according to Custodial Supervisor Lee Arrington, is the same reason you will continue to see aluminum ones.

Money.

Despite the dwindling number of vending machines on campus featuring aluminum, it still turns a profit that is forwarded to the Business Office. Plastic recycling does not.

“If we could make money out of plastic recycling, then it would be worth it,” explained Arrington. Otherwise, he said, it’s just extra work for a paid custodial staff whose time is valuable.

There’s some question whether Trinity Waste Systems, which holds the waste contract with the entire DCCCD, would bother recycling plastic if Facility Services did collect it. Jay Wooldridge, sponsor of the Sierra Student Coalition at the Richland campus where plastic bottles are collected, said, “One week Trinity said they did recycle [plastic], the next they didn’t. There’s not much of a market for recycled plastic and it’s tough to get a straight answer out of them.”

While admitting plastic recycling may not be immediately profitable, Biology Lab Coordinator Monica Atwell, who is also faculty sponsor of the Environmental Club, pointed out that the long-term value of recycling outweighs its short-term costs.

In today’s profit-focused commercial atmosphere, Atwell said, “Money certainly can be, and is, used as an incentive to recycle, but past that, people must be driven by a desire to preserve Earth’s very finite natural resources and limit the stream of waste going into landfills.”

That’s a lesson she instills in members of the Environmental Club by example. She and the club maintain plastic and glass recycling bins in the biology labs which they personally take off-campus for recycling.

Outside of a committed few, however, students largely aren’t recycling plastic. Dr. Len Kubicek, professor of geology and keenly interested in nature’s resources, pointed out that general waste bins on campus are “just full of plastic bottles.”

Wooldridge, based on his experience at Richland, estimated the North Lake campus goes through 5-8,000 plastic bottles a week.

Though it’s unfortunate no campus-wide plastic recycling program exists, there’s no excuse for students not to recycle individually, said Atwell. “How hard is it to put an empty plastic bottle in your backpack and take it home to recycle?”

Atwell’s Environmental Club, which meets every Wednesday at 4 p.m. in C-322, attempts to educate students on the value of recycling and other environmentally conscious activities.

“Habits are hard to change,” said Atwell. “People who’ve never recycled must retrain themselves, and unless they understand what it’s for and why to do it, it’s not going to happen.”

For now, students must continue to recycle individually. To learn more about curbside recycling and drop-off points in the Irving area, contact the City of Irving Environmental Services Department at 972-721-2355.

When asked if a convenient plastic recycling program on campus is likely anytime soon, Arrington is pragmatic in light of the recent statewide budget cuts. “We didn’t do it for years when we had the money, so whey would we start now?”

Kubicek has a different view. “Recycling is the future. We’re a college. Shouldn’t we be leading the way?”