Recycling the Myth

The eco-friendly 5-Cs

By Caitlin McDonald
Staff Writer

“I’ve always heard people say that Scripps doesn’t really recycle, and I don’t want to take the chance, so my suitemates and I do our own recycling,” said Marie Rothman, a sophomore at the supposedly recycling-bereft institution. Negligence on the part of the college is a fear voiced by several Scripps women, some believing that trash and recycling is collected indiscriminately. Others were uncertain, but confirmed that only one truck woke them up in the morning, suggesting trash and recycling were collected together.

After some investigation, this rumor appears to be entirely false—the product of groggy Scrippsies and early morning misconceptions. According to the maintenance office, trash is collected everyday, recycling once a week by the city of Claremont. After following a trash truck, it was determined that trash and recycling are collected separately. When asked about the erroneous belief, Dean Wood reassured “The College most certainly is recycling. The College has invested both time and money into the program,” and continued that this was the first she had heard of the rumor. As the city collects waste from all 5-Cs, this applies for each campus.

What is more disturbing about this trash-collecting misconception is the confusion and lack of knowledge it reflects in the student body. Clearly, students are unaware of everyday policies instituted by the colleges, and in turn uneducated about what they can do as individuals. Enter the Eco-club, a 5-C group devoted to improving both awareness and rectification of a variety of environmental issues. Founded several years ago, the club has been working to educate the college population about various recycling strategies and encourages the use of recycled material on campus.

With several eco-issues currently being addressed, one of their most successful exploits has been the “Tree-Free” campaign started a few years ago. The campaign advocates the use of entirely post-consumer recycled paper. Different from simple “recycled” paper—which usually comes from pre-consumer waste such as that from mills—post-consumer material has actually been previously used. Since used material is the kind that is typically thrown away by the consumer, post-consumer recyclable goods are highly beneficial. So far the club has convinced Pomona to use 30% post-consumer recycled paper in all offices and Pitzer to use it in all copy machines. With a proposal to Scripps under review, the club is effectively improving paper usage on all campuses.

Concerned with increasing recycling efficiency on all fronts, the club is reaching out to students as well. They have designed and routinely pass out stickers which outline exactly what can and cannot be recycled. As contamination of recycled materials by food and mistakenly-placed non-recyclable items are two of the biggest problems facing recycling plants today, this stickering campaign is highly needed.

When asked why they thought people didn’t recycle, many students responded that it was more a factor of laziness and feeling inconsequential than an ignorance concerning what could be recycled. “There are a lot of people who I think would recycle, but they know if someone screws up, then all the recycling has to be thrown out,” replied Austin Head, a Pomona first-year, when queried about attitudes toward recycling. Austan Mogharabi, a CMC junior, agreed. He thought the colleges were good about recycling in general, “except when it comes to parties where people toss crap on the lawn out of laziness.”

Hopefully, the Eco-club can combat this ambivalence as well. The members are presently filming a documentary on all aspects of recycling on the 5-Cs, and the film is scheduled to debut sometime before the end of the semester. Addressing every detail of recycling on the campuses from housekeeping practices to student perceptions, the film promises to increase awareness among the college population. Publicizing recycling in such a way will lessen feelings of futility among the student body, and with any luck the film will prove to be a mobilizing force in eco-consciousness.

When asked about recycling on the campuses, club member Colin Fiske responded that “the Colleges’ efforts on recycling are somewhere between terrible and perfect… But in any case, [the administrators] are usually quite amenable to being approached with potential ways to move forward on recycling issues.” As evidenced by the misconceptions among Scripps students, recycling education and awareness on the 5-Cs clearly needs to improve, and the Eco club is working diligently to make this happen. Meetings are every Monday night at 10 at the Pomona Women’s Union, and new members are always welcome.