For some students on campus the term "can-can" invokes a leggy dance commonly performed by Vegas showgirls. With an ambitious new pilot program intended to promote recycling on campus, the Student Environmental Committee hopes that more students will think of the "can-can" as, well, a place for cans.
This year, the Student Environmental Committee (SEC) implemented a new recycling program on a trial basis in Kershaw, Haines and Langan residence halls aimed at making recycling more convenient and, therefore, more common. The program consists of two components--the addition of recycling bins in all dorm rooms and the designation of a Dorm Environmental Coordinator (DEC) for each dorm.
Program organizers agreed that the surest way to increase recycling rates was to make it more convenient. "It's a lot easier for people to recycle when they have something in their room," said Laura Wilson '10, DEC for Kershaw.
The recently added cardboard recycling bins were considered an answer to complaints about the inconvenience of recycling in the dorms. "We kept getting requests to put bins on every floor and that just wasn't going to happen," said Chris Bair '96, campus environmental and safety coordinator, noting the potential fire hazard and the excessive amount of work extra bins would create for custodians.
The role of the DEC is to promote and coordinate recycling within the dorms and their activities are largely analogous to that of an SA. DEC's are responsible for throwing environmentally-themed study breaks, sending out reminder emails and posting signs encouraging recycling, and acting as a go-to person for environmental questions or concerns.
While Wilson said students haven't completely taken advantage of the program, what involvement there has been is encouraging. "A lot of people haven't come to me with questions," said Wilson, "but some have and that's a start."
As part of the program's trial period, each of the three DECs are measuring the changes in recycling rates in their dorms to test the efficacy of the program. After compiling the data, DECs compared their own dorms with a neighboring dorm of similar capacity. Wilson, who compared Kershaw to Rathje, found a one hundred percent increase in both paper and aluminum recycling, and a fifty percent increase in cardboard, but no difference in levels of glass and plastic.
Though only currently in three residence halls, the program has been well received by participating dorms. "It's so nice to have the box," said Liz Dreier '11, who lives on the third floor of Haines. "When I throw away garbage in the hall trash can I don't see a lot of recyclables in there," she said.
Anna Ford '11, who lives in Cleveland, is jealous of her Haines neighbors. "I wish I had one," she said of the recycling bins. "I'd use it."
According to Bair, recycling on campus has improved significantly since the mid-90s when he was a student. Then, there was only one recycling bin for South Campus and one for North Campus, he said.
Despite the progress since then, Bair said that there is still room for improvement, particularly in convincing students to use the available resources. "It's not hard to walk around and find recyclables in a trash can that's ten feet away from a recycling bin," he said.
The SEC hopes to expand the program into more dorms for next year, and to make the DEC a permanent position, but, as with any new program, student interest is a key factor. "It's likely it will be expanding if students show an interest in recycling," said Lyons. The administration is "looking for students to care before they give money," she said.
The SEC hopes that with its efforts, more students will be able to do the other "can-can."
