2008 Woodie Awards
Aggies team up to recycle
A&M recycling gives students a chance to clean up their campus and their community
By: Madiha Rizvi
Issue date: 9/8/08 Section: News
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"We have recycling bins [for paper] located in 135-145 locations on campus. The custodial workers collect those interior containers to recycle and bring them out the central location," Tom Marshall, coordinator of recycling services said. "I have two drivers on a regular route and they pick up those bins when they are full and bring them back to the facility on trucks. My student workers take those bins unload them off the trucks and bring them into the facility and start manually sorting through them."
They do not have recycling programs set up in hallways of dormitories because of contamination factors - such as trash.
"Students who are interested in recycling put paper in there [recycling bins outside dorms] and someone who doesn't care about recycling takes his half-can of soda that he has been carrying around all morning and decides he does not want to carry it anymore. He tries to find the closest place to put it and it happens to be our recycling bins. He puts trash in it," Marshall said.
A problem arising from people putting trash in the containers is that the student workers for recycling services have to sort through the bins manually.
"My student workers here handle everything that comes through by hand. We don't have the machines that pull the trash out. These guys are the ones who pull these recyclables out of the bins. There is no telling what is in there. They have come across hypodermic needles, razor blades, knives and glass." Marshall said.
Jasen Petersen, a senior history major and a student worker at recycling services, said that it is interesting to see what one can find in those recycle bins.
"One of the most interesting things we came across in the recycling bins was the glass head which is decorated in Marshall's office. It is a glass mannequin. You could think that maybe it is paper, but no, it is definitely not paper," Petersen said.
A typical day for a student worker coming into the recycling may include sorting through containers or loading cardboard or paper into hoppers for baling.
"One day, it will be cardboard up until the ceiling, with the construction we are doing on campus. [Recycling] is something that we do day-to-day. We sort out materials from the bins, and load them into boxes and we make sure that they are packed down so that they are 100 percent full and then load them up on trucks," said Joui Welch, junior urban and regional sciences major and student worker.
Marshall said that recycling services is a collection site. The paper goes to a company in Waco called Sunbright. The cardboard paper and white paper that is baled out is shipped directly to the mills. The broker for white paper and cardboard paper is Evergreen, the parent company of Sunbright.
By the end of September, the center will collect plastics bottles in addition to paper. They are going to place 200 recycling bins for plastics at vending machines.
To succeed in effectively recycling on campus, Marshall said that all students have to come together and perform their tasks in the correct manner.
"We would rather succeed than lose. To do something and help recycling, make it a tradition at A&M," he said. You all believe in your traditions whole-heartedly and you all are very strong in your traditions. Without everyone being on the same page, it is not going to work. So make it a tradition."
What goes where
College Station
curbside pickup:
All cans
Clear or brown glass
Plastic #1 and #2
Magazines and newspapers
For more information: call 764-3690
Bryan drive-in center:
All cans
Plastic #1 and #2
Plastic bags
All paper
Cell phones
Batteries
For more information: call 209-5675
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