2008 Woodie Awards
Recycling with reason
Scott Koperski
Issue date: 1/30/08 Section: Features
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Now, with students forming recycling organizations and teaming up with their universities, Nebraska campuses appear cleaner than ever.
"In 2006, out of our waste material, about 22.5 percent was recycled." said Keith Ebbert, recycling coordinator at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
That adds up to about 789 tons of total items - more than two tons per day - that were disposed or put to good use. Recyclable material from UNL, which includes paper, soda bottles and cardboard, is taken to Midland Recycling, 440 J St., for processing. Paper is the most recycled there. The money received from recycling is put directly back into the recycling budget.
Most academic offices at UNL have deskside bins. When the bin is full it's dumped into a larger bin outside of the building where it is then collected and taken to be recycled.
Rick Boldt, recycling coordinator at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said students have recently been frustrated with a lack of recycling options.
To remedy this problem, the students worked with the city of Omaha to get large roll-off containers on campus. These containers have spacers in them to create separate containers for different products (plastic, aluminum, paper, etc.). The city regularly collects recyclables from these drop off points.
At the University of Nebraska at Kearney, students created a network called Green UNK, or GUNK for short. Russ Bergsten, supervisor of landscaping at UNK, said GUNK sent an Internet survey to students randomly to find out their feelings on campus recycling.
According to UNK's Web site, the survey showed 18 percent of students were satisfied with the levels of recycling. Students suggested the local government work with UNK's recycling program to increase recycling efforts on campus.
Similar efforts have failed in the past because of the high cost of centralized containers and minimal student use. Bergsten thinks more bins are needed now because of the greater awareness of recycling.
"We pick up the recycling bins from the student union three days a week and they're often overflowing," he said.
UNK has experimented with incentives, competitions and various other recycling drives to get students more involved with recycling.
"We had a pop can drive where students and faculty would drop off their cans to be recycled and the proceeds all went into our scholarship fund," Bergsten said.
UNK continues to push recycling efforts and will evaluate the effectiveness of GUNK next year.
Students at UNL are involved in recycling through such student groups as Ecology Now. Ecology Now holds Earth Day events and also volunteers to collect the recycled products from some of the buildings on campus.
PepsiCo also contributes to the recycling efforts by supplying and collecting recycling bins for plastic bottles and aluminum cans. These bins are usually found near the pop machines in buildings. Although, not in close proximity to most of the offices.
University Dining Services contributes by reusing many of the containers that are not recyclable.
"Like cottage cheese containers, we would wash those out and may use them for storage." said Pam Edwards, assistant director of Dining Services.
No paper napkins are recycled from the dining halls.
Some UNL students have made it their personal obligation to contribute to the recycling efforts on campus.
Kayla Tupper, a junior political science major and also a resident assistant in Abel Hall, thought the recycling bin for paper on the main floor wasn't convenient enough.
"One of my residents had the concern that they had nowhere to put paper, so I made a big sign saying that all paper products would go in the boys' lounge."
She had to transport the paper herself down to the first floor every other week.
scottkoperski@dailynebraskan.com
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