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KU environmental group works to reduce move-in waste

By Aly Van Dyke

Friday, August 14, 2009

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Photo by Chance Dibben

Garrett Rainbolt, Larned junior, breaks down a cardboard box as part of the KU Recycle program on Friday morning behind Corbin Hall. As more students move in, more recycling stations will be added as a way to curb preventable waste.

Amid the cramped elevator rides, banged shins and sweltering heat, move-in day at the residence halls can be fairly stressful.

But one aspect of moving in doesn’t have to be; disposing of wasted cardboard in a responsible, sustainable and convenient way.

At least that’s the goal of the University’s Environmental Stewardship Program, which is providing cardboard recycling bins at each residence hall, accompanied by at least one student recycling technician to help break down boxes and dispose of trash.

One of the student recycling technicians, Nick Benson, Orlando, Fla. sophomore, said this would be his second year helping with move-in day as an employee of the stewardship program, also called KU Recycle.

Benson said GSP, Corbin and Oliver Halls generated the most cardboard last year — three truckloads full — and expected the same this year.

Benson, also a coordinator with environmental group KU Environs, said he liked working with KU Recycle because he felt as though he was making a difference by encouraging people to live more sustainably.

“If we don’t do it, no one will,” he said.

The University’s move-in recycling efforts began Aug. 14 and last through Aug. 21.

Celeste Hoins, administrative manager of KU Recycle, said move-in was one of the major recycling efforts at the residence halls.

Hoins said the University collected 7 tons of cardboard at last year’s move-in, 2 tons less than the 2007 move-in haul.

Although recycling tonnage generates revenue for the program, Hoins said she hoped to see the decline in cardboard tonnage continue as a result of people using fewer packaging materials.

“In the waste management hierarchy, reduce and reuse come before recycle,” Hoins said. “I know it’s the hardest of the three to achieve, but if we are going to live more sustainably, we must reduce the amount of packaging waste we consume.”

Hoins said KU Recycle would resume collecting usual materials — mixed paper, newspaper, bottles and cans — from residence halls the week of Aug. 24.

According to KU Recycle’s Web site, the University has recycling bins in 89 campus facilities, seven outdoor bin locations and a communal recycling drop off at the west Park and Ride Lot for those living off campus. The recycling program collects anything from office pak to steel cans.

Ryan Callihan, Lenexa senior and president of KU Environs, said the University did a good job of making recycling easy and accessible, but said students would still have to meet the University halfway.

“There’s only so much KU Recycling can do to make it easy to recycle,” he said. “There needs to be some effort on the students’ part, too.”

That effort, he said, could be taking an extra second or two to locate a recycling bin on campus for a pop can or recycling bottles and cans after a party rather than littering the lawn or throwing them away.

The University went from recycling 57 tons of materials in the 1992-1993 school year, to 542 tons in the 2007-2008 school year, which Hoins said she saw as a positive result of University and student support.

However, she said, there was still room for improvement.

“I’d like for us to see people changing their behaviors in a way that reduces the amount of trash, specifically packaging waste, that they generate in the first place,” she said.

Hoins said she’d like to see the overall waste stream recede, but until then, she hoped total recycling tonnage would continue to increase as a reflection of people recycling waste instead of throwing it away.

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