CAS To Receive More Recycling Bins

After years without a comprehensive recycling program at Boston University, CAS will significantly increase the school’s recycling coverage, according to College of Arts and Sciences Forum President Kyle Wackenheim.

Wackenheim said new plastic and aluminum recycling bins will be added near the CAS basement cafe´. Newspaper bins will be added at the building’s entrances near the Tsai Center’s four other main entrances.

The CAS Forum proposal has been approved by CAS Dean Dennis Berkey and Buildings and Grounds officials, Wackenheim said. He said the proposal was a combined effort with the Environmental Student Organization, which donated $30 to the effort.

ESO President Aaron Michel and BU officials said they are optimistic more changes could be in the offing before the end of the school year.

One large breakthrough came earlier in the academic year, when the ESO formulated a petition for students to voice their opinions on the recycling issue, according to Michel. He said the ESO signature-gathering effort that culminated on Recycling Day in November on Marsh Plaza was a success.

“It was surprisingly easy to get people to sign,” Michel said. “We had 2,000 petitions [signed] in only three or four weeks.”

Soon after revealing the petitions to the administration, Assistant Provost Michael Field told ESO the administration was looking to help the group improve the school’s recycling program.

“We must find cost-effective ways to do environmentally sustainable recycling and similar projects,” Field said.

Until this year, Michel said ESO had never received responses from the administration in regard to its recycling proposals.

“We had tried everything in the past to talk to the administration and have always been brick-walled,” he said. “This year has turned a new leaf.”

Michel guessed their bad luck in the past came with their failure to approach the right person.

“The administration is composed of many different people with different things they care about,” Michel said. “In the past we’ve made the mistake of speaking to the wrong individuals.”

According to ESO recycling co-chair Joanna Fehlauer, little opportunity exists for students to recycle, other than the bins in dormitories.

“Recycling should be convenient and easy for the students to do, and that’s what we’re looking to accomplish,” Fehlauer said.

Fehlauer said ESO is interested in expanding the availability of recycling bins around campus and wants to improve recycling in the dorms, which the group said is lacking.

Recycling bins are currently available only in the lobby levels of dorms, and it is up to the students to bring recyclable goods down from their floors.

“We’re working with the Warren Towers [Residence Hall Association] to have a trial tower for organized recycling,” Michel said. “If it works, we’ll expand it to the other towers and other dorms.”

During the trial, ESO would place bins on each floor of the tower and ask for volunteers to bring the bins to the larger bins on the fourth floor.

“If this goes into effect, we will need to have another pickup day, possibly two more pickup days a week,” said College of Engineering sophomore Brandon Johnson, who acts as the recycling chair for Warren Towers’ A Tower. “This would mean a lot more work for everyone involved, but it would mean three-times the recycling, which is the goal.”

“We’re [planning on] setting a meeting for next Wednesday at 7 [p.m.] in Warren Towers, and all students interested in helping out can come to the meeting for shifting responsibility,” Michel said.

Michel said ESO plans to meet with Custodial and Maintenance Administrator Michael Lyons to discuss potential recycling programs for other areas of the campus as well.

“The more people that get involved with recycling, the better,” Lyons said. “I think [the meeting with ESO will be] a positive step.”

Michel agreed with Fehlauer, saying a major factor leading to the lack of student recycling is that students are not given a good chance.

“A large issue has always been the convenience of recycling for students,” Michel said. “A lot of times they will not go out of their way to recycle, but they will recycle if they have the chance.”

Wackenheim said wide-scale changes wouldn’t come until BU has someone in charge of campus-wide recycling. He said more efforts will have to be made to expand recycling efforts in CAS and throughout BU next year.

According to The Boston Globe, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has set a goal to raise the recycling rate from 54 percent in the year 2000 to 70 percent in 2010.

“Recycling is important because you can actually accomplish something physical that needs to be done,” Johnson said. “I think that when there’s something that clearly needs to be done that can be easily done, then you should always start with that.”