Recycle this…
March 11, 2009
Budget cuts across college campuses are no secret and unsurprising in this economy. But does cutting funds also cut how campuses can be more environmentally friendly?
As college students, we’re always looking for resourceful ways of saving money by recycling or reusing and by simply trying new ways of being environmentally friendly. For example, at Sinclair Community College in Sinclair, Ohio, college students are finding ways to turn cooking grease into biodiesel. And Butte College in Oroville, Calif. is the largest solar campus in the state.
College students today are more aware of the environment and the harm we’re causing simply by living our every day lives. Our habits range from good to bad to worse in terms of how we affect the environment. Some of these bad habits are developed in the dorms where items like good, recyclable paper gets thrown in the garbage and where buying items like bottled water and heavily packaged goods becomes far too common.
According to an article in the Arizona Daily Wildcat, dorm recycling was cut in 2002 from the University of Arizona. Since then, recycling in the dorm has fallen to the responsibility of the student. Students can recycle anything from plastic water bottles to paper and even clothes. However, we as college students are responsible for buying our own recycling bins and gathering and dropping off our recyclable goods.
Some of the stuff we choose to recycle can greatly impact the environment. Paper can be reused and clothes can be used by someone else. We don’t always have to buy new goods.
Some retailers like Buffalo Exchange encourage students to sell their used clothes. Not only does it make us feel good by not throwing clothes away and them ending up in a landfill, but we get instant monetary gratification for doing something environmentally friendly.
However, taking it upon oneself to recycle paper, plastic and aluminum makes the task seem so daunting that we don’t even bother to do it. But students can take part by doing little things to provide a more sustainable future.
