Wednesday, November 7, 2001

Easy to recycle, hard to find the option
Commentary by Bethany McCormack

Walk into The Main and it’s a common scene — students eating out of Styrofoam containers and drinking out of paper cups. While it’s faster and more convenient, this practice creates more trash to add to landfills. To add to the problem, many students throw cans, bottles and paper into the trash without a second thought.

It’s easy to forget about the environment, opting for convenience rather than taking any effort to “reduce, reuse or recycle.” Being in college doesn’t make students exempt from protecting the environment.

Students aren’t doing their part, but it’s not entirely their fault. There aren’t a lot of opportunities to recycle on campus. There are no containers in the Student Center or around campus for bottles or cans. When students have an empty bottle and all they can find is a trash can, it’s a lot easier to simply throw the bottle away rather than carrying it around all day to recycle later.

If the university provided more opportunities for recycling, then maybe students would be more willing to recycle. Hopefully, there soon will be more opportunities. Josh Thaden, a resident assistant in the Tom Brown Pete-Wright Residential Community apartments, said a residence hall-wide recycling program might start next semester.

Currently some of the residential halls recycle and some do not, he said.

Thaden said he was concerned about the absence of a recycling program in the residence halls and approached John Butler, minister to the university. Now Thaden, Butler and the director of residential services are helping create a recycling program.
If this much-needed program works out, a company will put recycling bins in each residence hall, which students can throw everything into and the company will pick up and sort. Recycling will be easy and students will no longer have an excuse not to.

A residence hall-wide recycling program is necessary for TCU. It’s the university’s responsibility to help students recycle. After all, don’t they want us to be part of the “global community,” which includes the earth and its resources?

Putting recycling bins in the residence halls is the first step, but the Student Center also needs to have places to recycle as well as recycle bin locations around campus near trash cans.

Sodexho has tried to help the earth through such incentives as making reusable cups available and having food service employees wear buttons that say “Ask me for a plate.” There’s not a whole lot else they can do. It’s up to the students and other customers to do their part to eliminate waste.

The customers aren’t doing their part though. Bryant Currie, director of operations for dining services said he estimates that 80 percent of customers use Styrofoam containers rather than plates. Workers began wearing the buttons this year and he said at first more people were using plates but now it’s back to Styrofoam.

It’s easier to get a Styrofoam container than a plate so students do. Students don’t think about the environment or about the amount of trash they produce. Instead they focus on getting food fast and conveniently. Look around the next time you’re in The Main and observe how many people are sitting at tables eating out of Styrofoam.

Look at the trash cans which often overflow with Styrofoam containers.

The reusable cups that Sodexho made available last year are not being used either.

Currie said that only one-fourth of the cups were sold. Three-fourths remain on the shelf unsold because everyone still buys the disposable cups. Once again people opt for convenience when they could easily prevent so much trash from being produced.

It’s easy to forget about the environment when we’re running late, or we’re thinking about a test or we’re with friends, but it’s also easy to ask for a plate. It’s easy to reuse cups. It’s not too hard to save newspapers or cans from the trash.

The university should provide programs and services so we can do our part and help the environment. Then it’s up to us to take the next step and actually use those services.

Opinion editor Bethany McCormack is a junior English major from Dallas. She can be contacted at (b.s.mccormack@student.tcu.edu).