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Last Updated: Nov 13th, 2008 - 22:18:14 |
Auraria's Sustainable Campus Program continues to grow, with 3,000 new recycling bins arriving soon to save reusable items from ending up in the landfill.
The program, which is dedicated to renewable energy for Auraria, set its sights on a comprehensive recycling program as its first foray into campus sustainability.
The 34.5-gallon, bright blue, metal bins, due to arrive later this month or in early December, were paid for with $100,000 in student fees approved Sept. 12 by the Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board. The bins will be situated around campus next to trashcans and decorated with a logo designed by Metro art students. The bid to manufacture the bins went to High Country Chemical Supply.
Lia Peckman, chair and UCD representative of SACAB, has been working on the project for more than a year and a half, continuing the work begun by her predecessor, Shaun Lally, who came up with the idea for the recycling effort.
Beginning this year on Earth Day with the distribution of slightly smaller, desk-side bins around Auraria, the program has been described by Peckman as "incredibly successful."
"Already, we seen a 60 percent diversion (of waste going to the landfill) in the Tivoli and about a 40 percent diversion for the rest of the campus!" she said.
"We don't even have all of the buildings
participating yet."
The Administration, Central Classroom, Facilities Management, Plaza and Tivoli buildings have all seen the first wave of bins since they were initially distributed this spring, and the King Center is next in line.
Prior to the launch of the recycling program, Auraria officials estimated the campus contributed 1,300 tons of trash to landfills each year.
The bins allow for single-stream recycling, a system that doesn't require items to be sorted but instead allows them to be mixed together, increasing the amount of material recycled. Paper, magazines, cardboard, newspapers, glass and plastic containers can all be disposed into the bins.
But the road to turning green was slowed by a web of red tape. A lot of research, touring recycling facilities in Denver, collecting fees from the three institutions and discussion went on before Alpine Waste and Recycling, the largest recycling provider in the Denver area, was contracted to recycle the materials. And not all students are in support of the program.
Therese Nguyen-Vu, a UCD student, has seen the blue bins popping up around campus, but does not think recycling is beneficial to the Earth.
"Recycling creates its own waste." Nguyen-Vu said, adding that she uses the desk-side bins in the office where she works but wishes the bins were picked up more often.
David Krajicek, manager of environmental health and safety at Auraria, works with housekeeping and grounds staff to pick up bins and transport them to an area where they can be taken to the Alpine recycling facility. He encourages everyone to use the bins, especially since student fees helped pay for them.
"Recycling helps lower our carbon footprint," he said.
The most valuable part of the recycling stream is in paper, Krajicek said, while the greatest enemy of recycling paper is food waste. He said all who want to recycle should take care not to dispose of food waste in the recycling bins because even small condiments can be downright deadly to paper about to be recycled.
"If 15 of those ketchup packets burst, it would ruin all the paper in there." Krajicek said.
Already looking to the future, Peckman is planning for the program's next step: composting, another source of renewable energy that recycles organic materials such as banana peels or grass clippings into a rich soil often used for fertilizer.
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