Recycling bins give students chance to help environment

By Kelly Marino
Staff Reporter

Each month TCU pays to rent recycling bins in hopes that students will recycle and contribute to providing a safe environment, but not everyone does.

John Butler, university minister, said TCU pays $30 for each recycling bin and about $190 when they are taken away each month.

Bevin Kurtz, director of Foster Hall, said it is very convenient to have the recycling bins in the dorms. She said she recycles every time she gets the chance.

“It is great to have the recycling facilities here because you don’t have to go to the grocery store or can banks to recycle,” Kurtz said. “But most people don’t take the time to recycle.”

Laura McFarland - Skiff Staff Kayali Williams, a junior marketing major, recycles several newspapers Thursday in Moncrief Hall. TCU also has recycling bins in the Student Center, Jarvis Hall, Sherley Hall, Colby Hall and Worth Hills.

For several years now, TCU has provided separate recycling containers labeled for newspapers, cans and plastics. The students are asked to dispose of the various recyclable items in blue trash bags and all other trash is to be thrown away in the black trash bags.

Butler said a plan to recycle at TCU was derived five years ago.

“It began as a student concern in the House of Student Representatives and by a group with concern in the student body,” he said. “A plan was worked out with the staff and Residential Services.”

Hortencia Rivera, a housekeeper in Foster Hall, said Jarvis Hall, Sherley Hall, Colby Hall and Worth Hills have recycling facilities.

“(Women) do most of the recycling,” Rivera said. “Guys just throw the recyclable items in the trash.”

Every Wednesday the Residential Services’ housekeeping staff pulls the recycling bags out of the residence halls and places them next to the trash dumpsters outside each hall.

After the bags are placed outside the residence halls, Alpha Phi Omega, a coed service fraternity, comes by and picks up the bags in the afternoons.

Kara Rees, a nursing major and a member of APO, said she drives a golf cart from the TCU Police headquarters, picks up the blue bags and takes them to the recycling bins in the freshman parking lot.

The recycled trash remains in the recycling bins TCU rents out until the bins fill up and need to be emptied.

Butler said Waste Management comes and picks up the recycling bins about once a month and replaces it with another one. After the company picks up the recyclable trash it goes to the sorting center, he said.

“Students not only need to be doing this for the school’s program but for the future because it is something that will be practiced everywhere,” he said. “In each residence hall there needs to be a community who takes on more responsibility in developing motivational and educational things about recycling.”

Kelly Marino
k.a.marino@student.tcu.edu