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Student government improves recycling program
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At the start of Spring 2003, ASBSU installed approximately 24 new recycling receptacles throughout the Student Union Building.
ASBSU Recycling Coordinator Greg Bridges said student government hopes that convenient recycling stations will reduce both waste and waste disposal expenses for the university.
“You have to pay to throw away, but you get paid to recycle,” Bridges said.
Three bins are located at each new recycling station. The bins are color coded for their intended purpose. Green bins are for newspapers, brown bins are for plastics and red bins are for cans.
Bridges said there has been an increase in the amount of recycled materials, but said the full impact will not be certain for some time.
Previously, there were no recycling bins in the SUB, although some buildings on campus maintained their own.
“There’s been a recycling program; it’s just not very efficient,” Bridges said.
Bridges said one aim of the new program is to make recycling stations more easily accessible to users.
“It needs to be convenient for it to work,” he said.
Bridges decided to start with one building at a time. He chose the SUB because he feels it attracts the widest variety of students.
Although Bridges will leave his position at the end of the semester, he hopes the next recycling coordinator takes the program to other campus buildings.
Currently, all money earned from the recycling program goes back into the ASBSU recycling account. Last semester, the amount earned totaled about $500, but Bridges is aiming higher.
He hopes BSU can gain the financial benefits of a good recycling program, such as the University of Oregon, the University of Colorado and Rice University have.
“Lots of major schools already have this system figured out,” he said.
After looking into programs at other universities, Bridges decided that recycling would be a good investment for BSU.
Ryan McMullan, recycling coordinator for Rice University in Texas, said Rice recycles 29 percent of its waste, which saves Rice thousands of dollars each year.
McMullan said that from July 2000-June 2001, Rice University saved $19,000 on waste disposal and earned approximately $4,800 from selling the recycled materials.
In the following fiscal year, the market for recyclables fell, but Rice’s recycling effort still saved the university $10,000 on waste disposal.
There are about 4,000 students at Rice University. Boise State serves over 17,000.
The money for the recycling bins came from a donation from the Coca Cola Company, which gives $10,000 per year to ASBSU’s recycling program.
During Fall 2002, ASBSU approved spending $5,000 of the donation on the new recycling stations. The bins themselves cost up to $200 each.
Linda Cook, The Arbiter
