A Boston University professor has called for dramatic improvements in the school’s struggling recycling program, which was criticized last fall after students reported material in designated GSU recycling containers was being thrown out with trash by university employees.
School of Education and CAS professor Douglas Zook said the university’s recycling program needs more accessible on-campus recycling facilities, which would give the program a larger presence on campus.
“There has to be accessible places,” he said. “If [you] walked down Commonwealth Avenue, I would be willing to bet [you] would not find any recycling bins anywhere.
“I would say that more than 50 percent of the rubbish thrown out there by BU students, faculty and staff is recyclable,” he continued. “Why not have bins that are conveniently placed? . . . It’s time to do that.”
This fall, the university installed new recycling containers in the Boston University’s George Sherman Union food court. Students and officials involved with campus recycling programs declined to comment on reports of university employees throwing out sorted recyclables with the trash.
The Environmental Health and Safety Office, Facilities Plant and Management and the Office of Residence Life also collaborated to create a single program to manage the distribution and pickup of recycling bins along the Charles River Campus.
While the program has added new recycling options in the past year, there is room for improvement, particularly as a program with no “single key point of contact,” according to OEHS Director Peter Schneider.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said. “But we’re making progress.”
Facilities Plant and Management Senior Buyer Michael Lyons, who oversees the purchasing, placement and coordination operations for on-campus recycling bins, said he works closely with recycling company Capital Paper, Inc. to arrange pickup times and days for bins in dormitory-style buildings, South Campus and administrative offices.
Lyons also admitted recycling pickups have not always been carried out on time.
“The program is pretty efficient,” he said. “Sometimes we miss a few locations . . . it’s not a perfect system.”
According to Recycling Coordinator Katie Glodzik, campus recycling has experienced several improvements in the last few year years, starting with the distribution of recycling blue bags for every residential room on campus.
“This is all that we can do right now,” the College of Arts and Sciences senior said. “We definitely do want recycling bins in more locations, and that’s what we’re going to work on . . . we’re always working on that.”
Glodzik said throughout the 2005-06 school year, recycling bins were added in administrative offices, the GSU, the Fitness and Recreation Center and Mugar Library.
“The program could be better . . . it’s going to get better in the next few years,” she said. “I can pretty much say that with confidence.”
Lyons said individuals, particularly students who have grown jaded with on-campus recycling, need to participate with more recycling programs on campus, including Recycling Day and Earth Day.
“People come from different areas and levels of recycling,” he said. “We try to grow the program so there’s more participation . . . if students had more participation, [the program] can increase.”
Zook, who teaches a global ecology course, said the course is particularly relevant to the recycling issue on campus and in general.
“We need to be about how human beings can be compatible with the planet . . . we’re very incompatible to this point,” he said. “One of the most accessible ways to [becoming compatible] is through recycling efforts. I mean serious recycling efforts . . . not a few papers here and a bottle there.”