While green has been on the minds of the Creighton Community, students still don’t feel that enough has been done to support recycling on campus.
In order to voice their concerns and make a meaningful impact, Creighton Student Union’s officers and representatives have organized a trial recycling program.
The program will run until Dec. 5 and when it is completed, CSU representatives will use their results to try to convince Creighton administration to back a university-run recycling program.
“We are trying to gauge student interest. We are taking all those things as evidence and taking them to facilities management to create a university-run recycling program,” said Adam Hare, Arts & Sciences sophomore and CSU representative. “Recycling has been an issue in the minds of many students on Creighton’s campus. I’ve seen a lot of student interest for recycling programs and you do see a lot of independent recycling programs – FLP and Cortina.”
Hare said that facilities management has cited cost, lack of staff and a decrease in student interest as reasons that the university has not implemented a recycle program.
Through student fees, CSU is funding to have Pods delivered to various locations around campus: Kiewit, under the health sciences library, and near Opus.
“The most important thing is getting this thing off the ground, getting students involved. Students have to be informed to know what is going on,” said Arts & Sciences senior Sean Phifer.
In order to spread the word and increase involvement, CSU representatives will be wearing bottles around their necks, hanging environmentally friendly posters and using campus list serves to inform students.
CSU is partnering with First Star Fiber, Inc., a recycling company that uses a single stream collection system. This means that paper, aluminum and plastic can be mixed together and will not have to be separated before being delivered. In addition, the recycables can be up to 25 percent contaminated.
“This really isn’t that hard for students to get involved,” said Arts & Sciences sophomore Rajeev Anchan. “In my opinion, I really think that it is a viable cause, and changes can be made in the ways we currently pick up our trash that would make it just as easy to recycle. I guess we can kind of change the mentality of students as to what is trash and what is recyclable.”
CSU representatives are hopeful this trial period will be successful and said they feel this issue is too important to ignore.
“Just because we are a Jesuit university and claim to be a leader in the community, it only follows that we should have a sustainable recycling program,” Hare said. “Because not only does it help the environment but it also shows how committed Creighton is to improving the world.”