College advances sustainability efforts; students soon to recycle more materials

Camille Reid- Perspectives Editor
2/10/12

William Jewell College is striving to become a more sustainably responsible campus. The Center for Justice and Sustainability, Facilities Management and the Cafeteria are creating a new program that the campus will begin to implement as early as March. This new program is called Single Stream, and it will help to create an easier system of recycling on campus.
Single Stream is a system in which people can dispose of everything in one container and know that it will be recycled. Dr. Andy Pratt, executive director for the Center of Justice and Sustainability, said, “We have a contract with our trash vendor, where our trash will go into a sorting machine which will separate, plastics, papers and other items.”
The only items that cannot go into the machine are food and glass. Bruce Reed, general manager of William Jewell Dining Services, reiterated this limitation.
“Food residue or crumbs are okay with the machine, but not large pieces of food,” Reed said. However, this is not a cause for disappointment. “It will make recycling easier for students,” Reed said.
As of now, each residence hall and places across campus, including the Union, offices and departments have recycling bins for paper products. Yet some students find the recycling bins inefficient.
“At our [Lambda Chi Alpha] house we go through so much recycling that we almost need two bins,” Chris Zoog, junior, said.
With this system, the Single Stream green baskets will be accessible at more locations the Hill than are the blue recycling bins currently in use.  According to Pratt, “Each resident [of William Jewell] will receive one Single Stream bin, where they can recycle plastic bottles, cans, paper. We are trying to make things more beautiful around [William] Jewell. The baskets will be emptied several times a week.”
Emily Gates, sophomore, finds the proposed system of recycling helpful.
“I think that would be a good idea. I hate taking my trash out. I’m less inclined to recycle because it is in the bottom of Ely. It’s a hassle to take down the one Coke bottle I have been drinking,” Gates said.
Steve Anderson, director of Facilities Management and Procurement, is guiding this project with Pratt and Reed, as he did before with the green to-go boxes in the Cafeteria. “It’s a process.  We want to know what’s working and not working,” Reed said.
Yet, it is not just Reed, Pratt and Anderson working to make William Jewell more environmentally friendly.  Student Senate and the Students for Sustainable Life helped to create this change.
Another opportunity for  sustainability is glass recycling. Zoog believes that glass should be recycled at William Jewell.
“It’s stupid that we don’t recycle glass. So many people drink on campus,” he said.
Zoog believes that William Jewell needs to change in other ways as well.
“It’s great that Jewell is reducing its footprint, but there is more to be done with the structure of Jewell. Like, fixing windows and doors.  That way heating and cooling costs go down,” Zoog said.
Nonetheless, the College has shrunk its footprint considerably in the past two years.
“The more we change, the more we will see the volume of recycling go up and the amount of waste in landfills go down,” Pratt said.