RecycleMania Renews JMU
February 19, 2009 • By The Breeze,
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HARRISONBURG, Va. — Let’s talk trash: More than 2.4 million cups ended up in JMU’s trashcans last year. Add to that 1.93 million pieces of plastic silverware and 741,000 plastic bags, and that’s a lot of garbage.
But JMU wants to reduce that amount.
By participating in the nationwide RecycleMania competition, which began Feb. 2 and ends March 28, JMU will be one of hundreds of universities across the nation trying to reduce waste over a 10-week period.
This year, JMU is competing in another way, too. The Institute for Stewardship of the Natural World organized a waste reduction competition between all buildings on JMU’s campus between March 2 and March 28.
Christie-Joy Brodrick Hartman, director of the ISNW, hopes students, faculty and staff in academic buildings and dorms will watch what they’re throwing away. Not only that, but Hartman wants everyone to create less waste.
“We want recycling to become a part of our culture,” Hartman said. “So you’ll see slow roll-out of these programs, and you’ll see us continue well after RecycleMania is over.”
The campaign and competition follow President Linwood Rose’s signature on the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, which is a pledge from presidents to enact sustainable measures on their campuses.
“What I’m hoping is that recycling becomes what we do,” Hartman said. “So at orientation when students come in, they understand at JMU we minimize our waste.”
During the building competition, the ISNW will award the buildings with the greatest percentage decrease of waste per capita. Baseline measurements are taken for the amounts of trash and recycling that each building produced over several weeks.
Members of the EARTH Club, including sophomore Emily Robinson, are creating fliers to spread the message across campus. They are not just any fliers, though: Made of recycled newsprint and a sustainable red ink, they are an example of the groups’ efforts.
“It’s just going to be a reminder hanging over trashcans for people to check to see if what they’re throwing away could be recycled,” Robinson said. “On campus, people tend to just throw things away. People need to take the initiative to find the recycle bins because they are there.”
However, many people do not know what can be recycled, or how to recycle it. Hartman explained teaching the JMU community will be an important part of the RecycleMania campaign.
For example, plastic bottles labeled as No. 1 and 2, grocery bags and used batteries: Yes. But plastics No. 3 through 7, used paper towels and Styrofoam: No.
Hartman also explained that any food or biological wastes, such as used tissues, contaminate an entire batch of possible recyclables. At JMU’s recycling facility, employees hand sort all recycled materials, since each type of item is sent to a different location.
Nationwide, JMU ranked 133 of 195 universities in the Grand Champion category for the week of Feb. 1 to Feb. 7, with a cumulative recycling rate of 18.9 percent. JMU is also entered in the Waste Minimization category.
Over the past few weeks, the amount of recycling on campus has seemed to increase by about 15 percent, according to Jason Rexrode, operations supervisor for Office of Recycling/Integrated Waste Management.
The department is also exploring purchasing a hybrid recycling truck and an industrial paper shredder, which would allow confidential papers to be recycled rather than burned.
The RecycleMania campaign isn’t just part of the “green” movement, Hartman said. It’s more about “an entire cultural shift of our population.” When people ask her if people can really help the problem, she tells them it doesn’t hurt to try.
“There are enough bad things that we think are going to happen that we just shouldn’t risk it,” Hartman said. “Just make the small changes and we don’t have to worry about who’s right, who’s wrong and where the truth lies. We can just know that probably not using 2.4 million paper cups is going to be ok.”
Contact Katie Thisdell at thisdeke@jmu.edu
Contact Allie Conroy at conroyad@jmu.edu
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