All it took was a little bit of initiative. Well, some initiative, a $5 plastic garbage can and a couple hours of spare time each week. But in light of the astonishing fact that 68 percent of what gets thrown away on the University of Idaho campus is either recyclable or compostable, is there any cause more worthy of a college student’s time and energy? For Ryan, the decision was easy — he was going to start a pilot recycling program at his residence.
Let’s go back to that statistic again: 68 percent of what gets thrown away on the UI campus is either recyclable or compostable. This number comes from a waste categorization study conducted by the UI Sustainability Center in 2008 which involved sorting through campus dumpsters for materials that weren’t waste. The study found that 68 percent of what we are sending to fill up our landfills could actually be recycled, reused, or redirected toward different purposes.
Ryan’s head swam as images of tons upon tons of aluminum, cardboard and plastic were trucked to the landfill from Bob’s, Einstein’s and the Tower. Dazed, he saw hundreds of glass bottles breaking as they were being buried underground. Heartbroken, he remembered that Moscow Recycling pays in cash for these commodities — his knees buckled. His mind raced to everything he needed cash for: Textbooks, gyros, rent and Red Bull. It was all possible with the commodity value of recycled goods. But it was all being lost in the landfill, forever. Still deeper, the nightmare dared — it isn’t free to have those dumpsters emptied. Madness. Not only were his gyros and movie tickets being taken away and buried underground, but a significant portion of his tuition was helping to pay for the process. 68 percent –How could that be?
After the initial shock began to wear off, Ryan started to understand the potential inherent in the seemingly impossible figure. There must be, then, opportunities for recycling all over the place. Just think of tailgates and house parties, not to mention campus dining and residence halls. Indeed, there must be a plethora of ways to recycle on campus. Ryan could almost taste the gyros. He started by volunteering for Tailgate Recycling on Vandal Game Day. He proceeded to earn free lunches by volunteering for Food and Farm in the Idaho Commons and helping other students to sort their leftovers into recycling and composting bins. With these experiences though, came a great realization: That neither of these places, nor any others on campus, produce waste or non-recycled recyclables without the students.
Yes, it is the individuals who frequent each building on campus that contribute to its waste stream, and certainly not the buildings themselves, nor any faceless entity to whom we can extend the blame. It is each and every single one of us that is discarding twice as many recyclable and compostable materials as we do even actual waste. “Where better to start a pilot recycling program than in my own residence?” Ryan pondered, “For if I were in the habit of sustainable living at home, it would be no effort at all to do the same wherever I went.”
And so came the $5 garbage can and a couple hours of spare time each week, and the gyros quickly followed. All it took was a little bit of initiative.