2008 Woodie Awards
Lack of recylcing bins a critical issue at SIUE
Issue date: 7/5/07 Section: Editorial
It seems as if everything in today's society is going plastic. From the things we drink out of, to the forks and utensils we use, even the currency in today's world is turning into plastic. I feel that SIUE should have more plastic recycling bins on the campus. As you walk around campus one sees many people carrying around plastic bottles of all sorts, and if one continues looking around on campus, one sees very few plastic recycling bins. To recycle plastic on this campus, a person would have to walk around and find the very few recycling bins that are present on campus or they would have to walk to one of the residence halls or go to Cougar Village. This is a long distance to walk to recycle, so a majority of the people probably place their plastic bottles in the garbage cans, so they can be taken to fill the very large landfills.
Most people do not realize the great benefits that recycling has in store for this community and an even broader picture of the world. Recycling plastic is on the incline with "total post-consumer plastic bottle recycling increased by more than 187 million pounds in 2005," according to the National Post-Consumer Plastics. "The total ponds of plastic bottles recycled crossed the 2-billion-pound-per-year threshold to reach a new high of 2,102 million pounds"
This is keeping that 2 billion pounds of plastic out of all of the landfills and is returning it to the consumers. "When plastics are buried in a landfill, they occupy about 25 percent of the space," according to the Energy Information Administration. Some may say that recycled plastics cost more than non-recycled plastics, but with the increase in petroleum prices it will soon even out or become cheaper than non-recycled plastics.
My solution to this problem would be to place the new plastic recycling bins next to the current aluminum recycling bins on campus and in the basement of the Morris University Center. Or if that is a problem, just replace the current aluminum bins with plastic bins. I do not foresee this being a problem with the campus staff and the current students here at SIUE. After several discussions with fellow students, they felt like this would be a good idea, and they felt like most students would go along with this idea. This of course is not going to make everyone recycle their bottles, but hopefully the majority of people will decide to place their bottles in the recycling bins if they are easily accessible; which it would be, if placed in the areas that I proposed.
I feel by adding these recycling bins to the campus, it will help the students here feel like they have done something good for the environment by recycling. This would be a good thing, because that might influence them to expand their recycling to their home and it could really go a long way in helping to save the environment and expanding the life of our world.
Blake Berner
Sophomore
Pre-Medicine
Most people do not realize the great benefits that recycling has in store for this community and an even broader picture of the world. Recycling plastic is on the incline with "total post-consumer plastic bottle recycling increased by more than 187 million pounds in 2005," according to the National Post-Consumer Plastics. "The total ponds of plastic bottles recycled crossed the 2-billion-pound-per-year threshold to reach a new high of 2,102 million pounds"
This is keeping that 2 billion pounds of plastic out of all of the landfills and is returning it to the consumers. "When plastics are buried in a landfill, they occupy about 25 percent of the space," according to the Energy Information Administration. Some may say that recycled plastics cost more than non-recycled plastics, but with the increase in petroleum prices it will soon even out or become cheaper than non-recycled plastics.
My solution to this problem would be to place the new plastic recycling bins next to the current aluminum recycling bins on campus and in the basement of the Morris University Center. Or if that is a problem, just replace the current aluminum bins with plastic bins. I do not foresee this being a problem with the campus staff and the current students here at SIUE. After several discussions with fellow students, they felt like this would be a good idea, and they felt like most students would go along with this idea. This of course is not going to make everyone recycle their bottles, but hopefully the majority of people will decide to place their bottles in the recycling bins if they are easily accessible; which it would be, if placed in the areas that I proposed.
I feel by adding these recycling bins to the campus, it will help the students here feel like they have done something good for the environment by recycling. This would be a good thing, because that might influence them to expand their recycling to their home and it could really go a long way in helping to save the environment and expanding the life of our world.
Blake Berner
Sophomore
Pre-Medicine
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