Abby Everidge
Staff Writer
Recycling has been prevalent on The College of Wooster’s campus since the 1990s, and it has come a long way from its complicated beginnings. According to Director of Campus Grounds Beau Mastrine, “There was a student group led by a staff member that went to each building and removed and sorted all the recycling containers on a weekly basis.”
Then in 2009, single-stream recycling was introduced to campus, increasing recycling rates.
In 2012, The College hired a sustainability coordinator. “A lot of her work revolved around educating the campus about recycling,” said Mastrine.
Mastrine assured students, “The College of Wooster still has a recycling program, but with the recycling market ever changing, so does our program. Recycling is a choice and our group is trying to keep the campus aware of the program.”
Grace O’Leary ’20, Chair of Student Services, has shared her thoughts on the recycling culture of the campus.
“One thing that I think most students don’t realize is that Grounds and Custodial work very diligently to keep our campus clean and to take care of our recycling … The first step toward change on campus is for students to educate themselves on what they should/should not do and then hold each other accountable,” O’Leary stated.
Due to the fact that the bags in Wooster’s recycling bins are not recyclable, O’Leary advised students, “For the smaller, individual recycling bins, students should consider not using a bag. The larger recycling bins need these bags so that custodians can transport the recycling to the dumpster and the cans do not require cleaning after every load.”
Mia Stevens ’20 described the reasoning behind not using bags. “In the machines that sort the materials, the bags get stuck. This can cause shutdowns of the machine and slow down the whole process.” Stevens also advised students to either not use a bag entirely or use a paper bag to collect materials in students’ individual recycling bins.
Stevens warned students on campus who don’t recycle that their individual actions will have consequences for all. “If the whole campus doesn’t participate, the non-participatory students will contaminate the recycling streams and everyone’s efforts will be for naught … What we need to do is switch from a passive relationship with recycling to an active one.”
Since a majority of recyclables in the United States are simply shipped to China, the eastern superpower regulates contamination levels, and therefore what is recyclable and what is not in the United States may change. It is very important to stay educated on what is recyclable and what is not recyclable on our campus.
“The majority of Wooster students, in my opinion, do not care about recycling, nor do they care to learn about it,” said O’Leary. “I’ve heard a lot of people claim that they avoid recycling because they either don’t believe it to be important or they think it’s pointless because the recycling system is flawed … We need to improve the education of students and faculty on campus regarding recycling for it to ever be successful.”
(Photo by Angad Singh)