Tuesday, October 16, 2001

University initiatives for recycling are helpful for earth
By Claudia Smith Brinson
Knight Ridder

Never had I seen so much stuff. New stuff, expensive stuff. Not really necessary stuff. But stuff college students would die without.

New stereos and CD players boxed in Styrofoam and cardboard. New down comforters shrouded in zipped plastic. New computers encased in bubble wrap and surrounded by polystyrene package fillers and cardboard. Area rugs so new fumes waft through the gathered plastic. Desk lamps still protected by plastic. Clock radios and hair dryers still in cardboard boxes. Laser printers still in cardboard boxes.

At the end of a long, hot day the plastics filled one dumpster. The cardboard filled another and towered in a second, loose mountain nearby. And that was just one dorm at the University of Georgia on one moving-in day.

It’s hard to grasp just how much stuff is moved in, moved out or trashed as students come and go. Students at Texas A&M, for example, discarded 20 tons of boxes on moving-in day. The University of Michigan collected 150 yards of foam block on moving-in day, enough to fill a 40-foot semi-trailer one-and-a-half times.

It’s the peculiar byproduct of a wealthy society bent on consuming, — more goods, more trash than there is earth to cover.

This past spring, the University of South Carolina asked students to recycle, rather than dumpster dump, when they moved out. And it was a hit. The clothes alone completely filled the Cooperative Ministry’s warehouse and overflowed to the Salvation Army.

The University of South Carolina collected, then donated tons — tons and tons — of goods:

• Nearly 90 tons of furniture.
• 41.7 tons of cement blocks used for bookcases, enough to build 2 basements.
• 3.9 tons of clothing and shoes, enough to clothe 1,000 people head to toe.
• 2 tons of carpet.
• 1,000 pounds of small appliances and toiletries.
• 1,000 pounds of wood.
• 980 pounds of food.

The food went to Harvest Hope Food Bank; the small appliances and toiletries to SisterCare, a shelter for battered women and their children; the cement blocks and carpets to Habitat for Humanity; the furniture to Habitat and state agencies; the wood to contractors on site, said Michael Koman, the university’s environmental protection manager.

Some of the furniture came not from students but from South Carolina’s dorm renovations. Tens of thousands of dollars were saved in labor and disposal costs.

Fortunately for the planet, the 1990s marked a serious change in universities’ attitudes about recycling. Earth Day 1990 helped, as did the Talloires Declaration.

Signed by 275 presidents, rectors and vice chancellors of universities worldwide, it said universities must address “the unprecedented scale and speed of environmental pollution and degradation and the depletion of natural resources.”

Since then, universities’ creativity and efforts have kept growing. Many have “green” dorms; most offering recycling within dorms and academic buildings. Many require students to take at least one environmental course. Many encourage student task forces and initiatives; one innovation is adding recycling duels to sports rivalries.

Many hustle recycling during football games and their tailgating parties. Clemson University collected six tons of recyclable material last season. Penn State University has averaged five to six tons a game the last few years.

Ohio University collects and donates the non-perishable food students throw out at quarter’s end; last Thanksgiving that amounted to 4,000 pounds. At San Jose State University and the University of California-Davis, bicycles abandoned by students are auctioned, providing hundreds cheap transportation.

Brown University gives all its food waste each day to a Rhode Island piggery, saving the school about $50,000 a year. The Medical University of South Carolina processes 100 pounds of cafeteria leftovers a day with worms in a process called vermicomposting. About 500 pounds of compost are collected each month for the campus grounds.

Emory University is building a transportation fleet using alternative fuels that don’t pollute. Maintenance workers cruise campus in 40 electric-powered carts. With the help of federal funds, the Atlanta school is purchasing an electric tram, five electric buses and 13 compressed natural gas buses.

Clemson University is recycling tires. Three miles of roads have been paved with the tires plus asphalt. The tires are also used as mulch, a mulch lasting longer than wood, says Charles Butts, recycling manager.

South Carolina replaced 172 washers and 172 dryers last year with energy-efficient models saving annually 2 million gallons of water and $20,000 in utility bills.

Universities can save money in labor, in fuel costs, in disposal and landfill fees and also make money selling recyclables. In three decades of energy conservation, with 300 retrofit projects accomplished, conservation savings at the State University of New York at Buffalo hit $9 million annually.

But that’s not the main draw. The Campus Ecology Program of the National Wildlife Federation is tallying a first-time survey of campus efforts and attitudes. Of the 891 colleges and universities responding, 64 percent say environmental programs fit with the culture and values on campus. Cost-effectiveness was touted by just 41 percent, good public relations by 47 percent.

“A lot of campuses are doing at least something,” says Julian Keniry, manager of the Campus Ecology Program. “But most aren’t pursuing environmental strategies across all systems. Projects occur in fits and starts.”

Yet, what better place to experiment and learn about sustainable communities? Daily opportunity, sense of mission, creativity, intelligence, youthful energy to harness, it’s all there.

Besides, these are the kids who inherit our mess, who must learn to make less of a mess or find another planet for all that cardboard.