DO YOU REMEMBER your three Rs? Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: The cornerstone of every elementary school child's environmental science education. Yet for one reason or another, a lot of us tend to overlook the importance of conserving renewable resources as we get older. Sure, life gets busy, especially in a university setting. We often have so much to juggle that the mere suggestion of adding an additional responsibility to our already overburdened plates might elicit a cynical chuckle. However, the situation is not as amusing as it sounds. University students, who produce loads and loads of waste every day, consistently fail to recycle.
The University's Division of Recoverable and Disposable Resources (DRDR) aims to change this, however. The DRDR is responsible for all efforts to maximize material-based conservation and reclamation at the University, as well as efforts geared towards waste collection. Additionally, the Division is very good at achieving its goals, winning the Virginia Recycling Association's award for best institutional recycling program for three years in a row and being named the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Waste Wise Program Champion on numerous occasions, most recently in 2004. But in order to go even further, the DRDR needs your help -- whether you're a University student, faculty or staff member or a Charlottesville resident who frequently uses the University's facilities.
We all know that people make excuses for things that they're embarrassed about doing, such as not recycling. You may have already heard some ridiculous excuses, so let's go ahead and dispel a few recycling myths. First, the most common excuse: "None of it actually gets recycled anyway, it all goes to the same place and gets trashed." According to the National Recycling Coalition, that is simply not the case. While a few corrupt recycling programs may have mistakenly given this impression to the American public, these incidents have been isolated by and large.
Myth #2: "Only a portion of the material that I recycle can actually be reformed into a new product." While it's true that only a percentage of your 20 oz. plastic bottle can actually be reincarnated in the form of a brand new 20 oz. bottle, the plastic which does not get used does not simply get tossed -- instead, it is used in the manufacture of a product which requires a less-refined grade of plastic.
You'd think that knowing the facts which counter these myths would be enough to convince the entire University student population to recycle. It apparently takes more, though -- and DRDR has gone out of its way to make recycling receptacles available without requiring students to go out of their ways. Anywhere you find a dumpster, you'll nearly always find a recycling center with it. Similarly, DRDR has strategically placed recycling bins at the exits of most University buildings, near soda machines, in libraries as well as along the McCormick Road corridor. It's safe to say that wherever you find a trash can, you'll be able to look around and find a recycling bin close by. Now all you have to do is keep in mind that it's just as easy to toss a bottle or can in the bin as it is to throw it in a trash can. Recycling isn't only great for the environment; it also helps cut the University's costs. And with budget cuts and rising tuition, we need those dollars for education, not waste removal. In the past ten years, DRDR estimates that it has saved over 25,000 tons of recyclables from going to the landfills. Not only does this minimize the cost of waste removal, but the University actually makes money because the DRDR is able to sell the recoverable resources. The funds gained from this help to sustain the program and are funneled back into the University's budget to pay for educational costs.
Come to think of it, there aren't any real negatives which come as a result of recycling. It's easy, it saves energy, it conserves resources and it's even profitable! Who knew? So next time you're walking out of the Pav with your soda bottle in hand, make the smart decision. The three R's are just as important today as they were when you first learned them.
Todd Rosenbaum is a Cavalier Daily columnist. He can be reached at trosenbaum@cavalierdaily.com.
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