Recycling

Recycling – Challenge for Brandeis

The waste we create at Brandeis University greatly affects our environmental impact. How we choose to dispose of waste is important to the University’s resources, funds, and functionality. Recycling is a great way of managing our waste problem and doing our part to maintain the environment.

In the late 1990s, a previous Greening the Ivory Tower class developed, proposed and implemented, with approval and support of the University, the Brandeis Recycling Program (BURP). The program uses the tri-bin system, designating places for mixed paper, commingled material, and unrecyclable trash. These bins are all over campus, in dorms, student centers, and academic buildings. Materials from the bins are collected in large toters by campus staff, and then picked up by the Institution Recycling Network, Brandeis' recycling contractor.

The recycling system is in place, it is up to students to use it! But despite the recycling initiative, there is still the continuing challenge of raising student awareness. Often students do not take the time to sort their garbage, wash out bottles, find correct bins, etc. They end up throwing away their recyclable items along with the regular trash.

Some people lack motivation to dispose of their trash correctly and often litter. This trash, along with what people irresponsibly flush down the drain, gets washed into the sewer system. Even though the water is filtered or treated through a number of processes, garbage still ends up in the ocean, as we saw during our class trip to the sewage treatment plant on Deer Island.

Also, in this class we learned about the strict rules and regulations for disposing of hazardous waste material at Brandeis. But students working in the labs are often uninformed and make mistakes, as we noted during our evaluation of one of the student labs. Many students also do not know how to dispose of specialty items like batteries and e-waste.

Brandeis students often bring their home recycling practices with them when they come to campus. Maybe some one else in the house is responsible for taking out the trash or the recycling standards at home are different than at Brandeis. Too many people end up being uninformed about how to correctly dispose of their trash at Brandeis.

The recycling problem really begins with the enormous amount of waste that is produced. From the amount of food that people pile onto their plate, to how much paper is used to print out readings and assignments, waste keeps accumulating in increasingly high quantities. Students do not always make a conscious effort to reduce and reuse. Many do not actually think about where their waste goes. Facilities workers take out the garbage early in the morning and students never have to think twice about it.

Students for Environmental Action (SEA) collected bags of trash from Ziv and Massell quads and sorted through them to find out what recyclable items people throw away. More than one third of the bags were filled with materials that could have been recycled. SEA put the bags on display along the pedestrian walkway to raise awareness for America Recycles Day on November 15. Clearly there is a major problem at Brandeis when it comes to recycling!

A university is a small community; each one of us has the power to make a difference through the choices we make. Simple things can be done to reduce, reuse, and recycle in everyday life. All that is needed is education and commitment.