Issue date: 7/15/08 Section: Opinions

Our View
Situation:	By state mandate, Eastern must reduce 40% of our waste-stream, but we are currently at 33%.
Stance:	As a whole, we can get to 40% reduction easily with just a little bit of cooperation and action, but we shouldn't stop there.

Eastern students ought to do a much better job recycling. We're mandated by the state to reduce 40% of our refuse, but we're currently at 33%, according to recycling coordinator Allan Rathe.

As to why students don't recycle more, Rathe is in the dark. He says he has tried to make recycling as convenient as possible, but students simply don't recycle.

It is time to change this as a campus.

There are bins all over campus designated for aluminum cans, plastic bottles and paper. These three materials are the most common materials on campus that can be recycled but aren't. Not so obvious, Rathe says, is corrugated cardboard.

Just as the proverb says, many hands make light work. Everyone on campus needs to begin chipping in and making this campus as nice as possible.

It shouldn't be up to our small recycling department to force us to recycle; it is up to each of us during every trip to the trashcan.

Part of Rathe's job is to make sure that dumpster trash is sorted to retrieve recyclables. During a recent sorting, he found nearly 50% of the dumpster's content could be recyclable.

Why does any of this matter? The EPA says that recycling reduces our reliance on landfills, takes away the burden of collecting raw materials from the world, and removes contaminates, making us healthier as a whole.

We could make our campus a little better each time we properly dispose of paper, cans, bottles and other materials that can be reused. It is not that hard, and even though we live in a time of increasingly eco-friendly messages, the fact that we do have a direct hand in protecting our world is nothing to scoff at.

Continued...

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