Friday, November 13, 1998
Student-run recycling plan
to spring up
in Rieber Hall
UCLA lags far behind other UCs, schools  until now
By Barbara Ortutay
Daily Bruin Staff
Whether it was paper, plastic or aluminum, Karen Yeh used to
recycle before she came to UCLA.
But since moving in to the residence halls, the third-year
molecular, cell and developmental biology student throws away most
of her garbage, including cans and bottles.
"I don’t know what else to do with it," she said.
As a resident of Rieber Hall, Yeh will soon be able to recycle
aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles in the hall’s student-run
pilot recycling program.
If successful, the program may expand to other dorms, according
to Rieber Resident Director Greg Fletcher.
"(Ours is) the building it’s going to be tried out in," Fletcher
said. "We are going to have bins on every floor."
The bins will be in place in the study lounges of every floor by
the end of this week, according to Fletcher. On the third and
fourth floors, where students live in the lounges, bins will be
located next to the elevators.
Most dorms, including Rieber, already have recycling programs
that are run by housekeeping.
This program is different because it is entirely student-run,
according to Fletcher. It is not related to the program that
already exists in the residence halls.
"Student volunteers will clear the bins on a regular basis,"
Fletcher said.
The new program is sponsored by the university’s Facilities
Management and the Business and Finance departments.
Currently, there are large garbage bins on each floor, where
students can throw all recyclabes. Residents, however, often dump
garbage in these bins, which may be because they are not clearly
marked as recycling bins.
Once the new program begins, the old bins that are currently
used for recycling will be used as trash cans.
Organizers of the new program said that one reason for starting
it is to have more student input in recycling.
The new program will feature separate bins for newspapers, and
cans and bottles. While this program will help increase recycling
in the dorms, the rest of the campus is still without glass or
aluminum recycling facilities.
Jan Lee, a California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG)
campus organizer, said that currently, UCLA only recycles
paper.
Facilities Management officials said that while there are no
aluminum or glass recycling efforts done on campus, cans and
bottles are sorted for recycling by the garbage company after
collection.
Lee said that CALPIRG, a UC-wide environmental and consumer
group, is working on a recycling program that incorporates the
entire university, not just select areas.
"There are all these random efforts by people who really want
recycling, but there is no centralized effort telling the
administration that students want this," she said.
Lee added that CALPIRG is working with the Graduate Students
Association’s Environmental Coalition and the Undergraduate
Students Association Council external vice president’s office to
get centralized recycling under way.
"There is no reason why one of the top schools doesn’t recycle
most of its garbage," Lee said. "We’re like a small city; we
produce a lot of waste."
Compared to other universities, UCLA is behind in its recycling
efforts, Lee said.
"Loyola Marymount recycles 60 percent of its waste," she said.
"It makes us look really bad."
She added that while there are no exact statistics on how much
garbage is recycled at UCLA, it is considerably lower than many
other universities, including UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and UC
Santa Cruz.
Assistant Vice Chancellor Jack Powazek said aluminum and glass
recycling is not a main concern at UCLA because these materials
account for a very small amount of the trash UCLA generates.
"We have been doing waste analysis since 1993 and we found that
the amount of glass and aluminum waste is less than one percent,"
Powazek said.
Lee said the lack of recycling facilities on campus is a concern
for a lot of students. Some, she said, walk around all day with
empty soda cans because there are no places to recycle them.
"There are a lot of cans being thrown away," said Jane Baskin, a
third-year fine arts student and CALPIRG member. "Honestly, college
students live off of soda."
In addition to environmental concerns, Lee said there are also
social implications as to why recycling is important.
"Many people don’t think about where this trash is being
incinerated," she said.
"Often it is low-income, minority communities. It may seem like
a small issue, but it isn’t."MANDY SIU
A resident of Rieber Hall contributes some paper recyclables to
the new recycling bins in the dorms.
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