In response to the environmental concern of today's society several departments and organizations at Boston College are working to make recycling a part of on-campus culture. Recycling resources are being added to residence halls, dining halls and athletic facilities to encourage students to reduce, reuse, and recycle every day.
BC Facilities is working closely with the student-run organization Ecopledge to make recycling accessible to every student on campus. Within the next month, individual recycling toters will be placed in each residence hall rooms on Upper Campus and Newton Campus. These toters are made of maroon plastic and will have handles so they can hang on a doorknob.
The hope is that students will fill their toter with empty cans, bottles, and paper, and then take it down the hallway or to a lounge to distribute their recyclables into the larger toters. "A lot of the reason why students don't recycle is because they don't have a place to put recyclables. These toters will lead to more recycling which means less waste," said Katie Cava, A&S '08.
Another improvement in the residence halls is the addition of toters for paper recycling. Many residence halls only have commingled recycling for bottles and cans. In the next few weeks, paper bins will be added in the hallways on Upper Campus and the lounges on Newton Campus. "We think that by having the containers closer and more available, people will recycle paper. It works with bottles, we expect that it will work with paper," said Richard Range, the manager of housekeeping utility functions.
Dining Services is also helping in the fight to conserve waste on campus. Though most of the work is behind the scenes, the dining halls spend a lot of time recycling. Every purchase is sent in minimal packaging, usually in a pouch instead of a can or a box. They also have combined their deliveries in order to reduce the amount of air pollution released from trucks. They recycle all of their cans and cardboard, and at Corcoran Commons, employees do all of the sorting of recyclables in the kitchen.
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