Bruce Moses never had to look far to see how disjointed
Eastern Michigan's recycling program was.
When the former continuous improvement and planning director's
office was in Boone Hall, administrative secretary Ann
Rentfrow used to haul two garbage bags of plastic water
bottles home every week to recycle them on the curb because
there was no place to recycle them at Boone.
"We're avid recyclers at home," Rentfrow said. "I couldn't
figure out why they didn't have a recycling project here."
 |
RECYCLING SURVEY: Gaelan Campbell-Fox,
an
EMU senior from Buckley, Mich., places a plastic
bottle in the recycling bin at the Student Center
while talking with Adam Dombrowski, a
sophomore from
Willis. A campus committee was
recently charged
with identifying ways to
improve recycling at EMU
as part of the
University's Academic Quality Improvement
Program (AQIP) process. Photo
by Anthony Gattine |
Moses, who recently took an administrative job at Northwest
Arkansas Community College, was part of the committee charged
with identifying ways to improve recycling at EMU as part
of the university's Academic Quality Improvement Program
(AQIP) process. In March, the committee surveyed students,
faculty and staff to gather impressions of the campus recycling
culture — or lack thereof.
"The trend, I would say, is that our constituents are
confused," said Moses. "We have no systematic communication
about what is important as far as recycling on campus."
Although 55 percent of survey respondents said they always
recycle at home, that dropped to 21 percent on campus.
Approximately 15 percent of the people who completed the
survey said they never recycle on campus.
And when it came to evaluating EMU's support for recycling,
55 percent considered it weak or very weak and another
25 percent tagged the University's support as neither weak
nor strong.
"I always move (ambivalent answers) to the negative side," Moses
said. "If you're not sure, we're not doing something right."
Seventy percent or more of respondents said they should
be able to recycle in dining areas, administrative buildings
and classrooms, and 60 percent or more said they wanted
to be able to recycle mixed paper, batteries, Styrofoam,
computer components and food (compost).
Part of the confusion, said Diane Lynn-Veals, recycling
team co-leader, comes from a lack of communication about
just what is recyclable on campus. The physical plant's
Web site has a list of recyclables at http://www.emich.edu/physplant/green.html.
But Lynn-Veals said many people don't click the "Green
initiatives" link and, therefore, never find the list.
Meanwhile, one of the biggest problems with recycling
bins in classroom buildings is that people throw trash
into the bins. Neither the custodians nor the physical
plant's lone recycling student employee have time to sort
it, so the entire bin becomes trash.
To initiate change, the recycling team recommended:
- Using consistent and clearly labeled three-section bins
(like the ones used at the Student Center) campus-wide.
- Adopting a "Reduce, Reuse, Think" slogan to emphasize
ways of producing less waste.
- Establishing a recycling council to keep the program moving
and apply for grant money.
- Giving the physical plant control over all things recycling.
- Participating in America Recycles Day (Nov. 15) and EMU
Recycle Day (typically during move-in.)
"I think people were kind of doing their own things," said
Lynn-Veals, who's also a custodial and grounds zone manager
with the physical plant. "I think, in the administrative
buildings, and the ones we were testing had recycling,
but you'd have the physical plant do one thing and student
focus groups doing another. This will make it more standard
across campus."
The recommendations will go back through EMU's Office
of Continuous Improvement and on to management — in this
case Associate Vice President for Facilities John Donegan,
who's worked extensively with the recycling team already.
"The students want to do it and they've had initiatives.
VISION Green and those folks are really strong," Moses
said. "We haven't, as an administration, as leadership,
embraced the culture of saying recycling is very important
to us. I think it trickles down. You've got to model behavior
(that you want to see)."
