In one hand you have a empty can of PBR in the other hand you have a bubblegum wrapper, the decision is on your shoulders: what do you do? Should you put them in the trashcan or in a different receptacle? Should you recycle them or throw them away? What should you do here on the Antioch Campus? RECYCLE! Let it be known that here at Antioch we actually do try to recycle. In most buildings on campus there is some type of recycling bin, whether it takes the form of a cardboard box or an actual recycling (blue) barrel, varies from building to building.
The way that Antioch tries to recycle is by hiring students through Federal Work Study Positions (FWSP). The students who are hired empty recycling bins from buildings around campus into dumpsters around campus that are designated for recycling. The students hired as FWSP recyclers work under Darrell Cook, co-coordinator of recycling Physical Plant. The students combine plastic, aluminum and glass into the same dumpsters here on campus, which are later sorted at the site where they are recycled (in Dayton.) The cardboard and paper recycling are put into dumpsters just for paper materials and are sent to specifi c paper recycling facilities. All of our garbage and trash go to Pinnacle Point, a dump/ recycling facility in the Dayton/New Carlisle area.
The only issue with Antioch’s recycling policy is it depends on the students for recycling to actually take place. If the students do not pick up all the recycling from each building the recycling is thrown out with the trash instead of being recycled.
“It all depends on the students,” says Milt Thompson member of Campus Greening Committee. “Without the students, recycling cannot happen.”
However , 4th year, Anne Fletcher sees a failure to recycle as Antioch’s fault, not the students’, “It’s just an example of institutional neglect of green issues, its not Physical Plant’s fault because they do not have enough staff or money allocated to them to have staff do it. If Antioch really cared about environmental issues, it would be institutional, what can be recycled isn’t even publicized around here.”
Many other schools have institutionalized their recycling that actually works, says Fletcher.
According to Cook, Antioch’s recycling policy is very poor because some people are on the recycling bandwagon while others do not even know there is a recycling bandwagon.
A 1st year, Jane, suggests we let everyone know we recycle here at Antioch. A solution is to simply distinguish garbage cans from recycling cans. Another idea is to put up colorful posters to help alert members of the community about recycling. And maybe the most simple solutions is when you see someone going to throw away a recyclable item, speak up and encourage recycling here in our community, after all we are supposed to care about our environment.
Q&A with BOT chair Art Zucker on College, Core and Common DNA 