Recycling program needs boost from students
By Tom Forquer
Buried within the 120 tons of waste produced monthly by Santa Clara faculty and students lies a vast body of evidence that suggests the community doesn't care about the way they dispose their trash, officials say.
Recycling and Waste crew members say the most startling indication of this is the mass of recyclable material that the they see in the trash.
"We're capturing somewhere around 50 percent of the recyclables," said Lucky Hinkle, leader of the Recycling and Waste crew.
This loss is occurring despite the extra efforts of the crew.
To help keep recyclable material from winding up in landfills, crew member Laurence Baxter sorts through every trash dumpster before loading it into a compactor, looking for cans, bottles and cardboard. He checks 10 to 12 dumpsters per day.
For every dumpster processed, Baxter fills up two 50 gallon drums with recyclable material, sometimes more.
"After a party evening, I'm liable to get five or six," Baxter said, referring to the large quantities of alcoholic beverage bottles he finds.
Even Santa Clara's bona fide recyclers are far from a perfect record. The crew sorts through all recycling containers that come through the system and frequently find items that don't belong.
"When you are putting your recycling away, you could take it out of the plastic bag you use," said senior Jon Rodrigues, marketing major and member of the school's waste crew.
Plastic bags aren't the worst of what the crew handles.
"Lots of times people think they can recycle their Benson to-go containers. Definitely can't do that," Rodrigues said.
Cardboard boxes have also been a source of grief.
"If you don't flatten it, you're not recycling," Hinkle said. If no one does this, Hinkle said what results is a "three yard bin full of air." Wasted space requires more dumpster loads to be hauled, as well as added labor for the crew.
Members of the recycling crew aren't always the only ones who suffer as the result of improperly disposed of cardboard boxes. From the beginning of the fall quarter to Dec. 3, Santa Clara fined four students and warned 148 for violating university policy regarding breaking down cardboard boxes, according to office of Housing and Residence Life.
Crew member Eugenio Ramirez said that it is difficult to keep the entire school up to date on efficient recycling procedures.
"The sad thing about this is that as soon as we train students, they are out," said Ramirez.
Because half of the community's recyclable material is going to the landfill, this means half of it isn't, which an improvement from years past.
Still, some say there are changes that could be made by Santa Clara to improve the efficiency of the system.
We don't necessarily make it as easy as we could," said Amy Shachter, science professor and executive director of the Santa Clara University Environmental Studies Institute.
Students living in the dorms are allotted one small bin to hold all of their recycling, a bin that wasn't provided to residents before the year 2000. Out at the dorm's garbage area, they must individually hand-sort each recyclable item into an aluminum, tin, plastic, cardboard or mixed paper container.
Shachter said that dorms such as Casa Italiana and Sobrato Hall have been recognized as good recyclers, partly because they are better equipped to do so. Their kitchens contain bins for the various recyclable materials, allowing students to sort and dispose on the spot.
Hinkle said that currently, the McLaughlin Residence Hall has been the best about recycling, but noted that, by in large, there are no discernible difference between the different dorms and academic buildings.
A committee of faculty and administrators is currently drafting a "sustainability" policy designed to lay out in writing what Santa Clara's goals are in becoming more earth friendly.
Shachter, a member of the committee, described the concept of "sustainability" as "taking efforts to ensure that there will be enough resources for this generation as well as future generations."