It has been brought to the attention of the newspaper staff that there are members of the WPI community that feel there are less recycling bins on campus this year than last. Upon looking into this, I discovered that is a fallacy. There are the exact same numbers of bins/receptacles/facilities on campus today as there were last year. What did come up with my investigation though were some very interesting facts.
Currently, WPI recycles cardboard, office mix paper; including magazines, junk mail, paper, etc., computer terminals and monitors, and metals. Our recycling program is based upon a 1994 MQP project that reported that the bulk of WPI wastestream is cardboard, office mix paper, and metals.
Last year, Plant Services recorded collecting ninety-two tons of office mix paper, twenty-six tons of cardboard, and twenty-one tons of metal. Since July, three hundred fifty computer monitors have been recycled. This totaled to be about fifteen percent of the wastestream that was removed. Any garbage that is thrown into the trash bins goes to that eighty-five percent, this includes a lot of material that could be recycled but isn't. This is where another problem arises.
Recycle bins are exactly that, for recyclable material. Continuously, students, staff, and faculty throw non-recyclables into the recycle bins. This causes the custodians to have to take more time and separate the trash from the non-trash, or just take what could have been recycled and trash it.
Personally, having worked for Plant Services for the past three years I have witnessed this first hand. Just the other day, I removed five boxes of cassette tapes out of the bottom of one of the large brown bins clearly labeled "paper only." This example is minimal compared to the other types of trash that I know gets thrown in the bins i.e. food trash.
Basically, if we could all cooperate and recycle by putting the correct waste into the correct bins then "fifty-percent of the wastestream going into the dumpsters could be recycleds." Says Terrence Pellerin, Associate Director of Plant Services, in charge of the management of buildings and events.
Recycling is actually a less expensive process than waste removal. WPI pays seventy-five dollars per ton of trash and only twenty-seven dollars per ton of recyclables. With last year's numbers of one hundred thirty-nine tons of recycled materials, we could possibly almost triple that number, save money, and save the environment all in one move.
So, please try to recycle whatever you can of your trash and cooperate with throwing the right trash in the right bins. If you have any questions pertaining to this article, contact Tech News: technews@wpi.edu.