By Julia Mericle
News Assignment Editor
“We’re trying to change a culture here,” Sr. Suzanne Kush C.S.S.F., director of the Franciscan Center for Social Concern, said, speaking about Recyclemania, a national competition to increase recycling on college and university campuses.
Recyclemania began on Feb. 1 and continues through March 28. This is the second year St. Bonaventure has participated.
According to Sister Suzanne, Tread Lightly, a campus environmental club, set a goal to reach 27 percent of all campus waste being recycled.
However, the first four weeks of Recyclemania have yielded unsatisfactory results, with the recycling percentage of total campus waste ranging from 18.83 percent to 22.44 percent. These percentages are determined by waste managers who weigh the campus’ total waste vs. the campus’ total recycled materials.
Allison Field, a sophomore chemistry major, said the major increase of trash produced recently from the broken dishwashers in the Hickey Dining Hall.
“All the Styrofoam cups and such being thrown away in the Hickey are definitely hurting the recycling percentage on campus,” Field said.
According to Azure Collins-Anderson, president of Tread Lightly, it is easy for students to get involved with Recyclemania.
Sister Suzanne agreed.
“It’s a matter of just taking time to pause and put [recyclables] in the right container, but very often we just put it in the container that is closest,” Sister Suzanne said.
According to Sister Suzanne, a great deal of the waste students throw out can be recycled, such as Starbucks coffee cups, pizza boxes and beverage containers.
Sister Suzanne also said that students tend to disregard the long-term effects of their actions, such as how long it takes for trash to break down in landfills and the gases that are emitted into the atmosphere.
Collins-Anderson agreed that students need to start being more conscious of their actions.
“It has come to the point where we as a generation need to realize that we aren’t recycling because people say we should,” Collins-Anderson said. “But we are doing it because it is for our own good.”
Collins-Anderson said that the club’s main goal this year is to educate students about being green by hosting a series of event on campus, including the Trashion Fashion show on Tuesday, April 21.
The Urban Art Club is also pitching in by creating the Polar Bear Purge, an event to build a giant polar bear out of snow in the Plassmann Quad in an effort to raise awareness about the melting of the Arctic Ice Cap, their home. The event was scheduled for Wednesday, March 4, but was postponed due to ice covering the snow. The date is to be determined.
“The arctic ice cap is melting and going into the ocean and [polar bears] home and hunting grounds are now being threatened basically because of our carelessness,” Sister Suzanne said. “We think everything is going to last forever and everything does not last forever.”
Sister Suzanne said Tread Lightly plans to continue bringing awareness to campus even after Recyclemania is over.
“As a Franciscan university we should be very much concerned about the care of creation,” Sister Suzanne said. “And yet there are not concerted efforts to really become conscious of how we can better protect what is our home.”
