The lack of recycling on college campuses is a huge problem nationwide, especially at the University of Mississippi. A recent focus group at Ole Miss agreed that students either do not care to recycle, or they cannot find where to recycle. Either way, they say the university needs to become aware of this ongoing problem throughout the campus and find a solution to make Ole Miss a greener and better university. In The Green Initiative Fund, there were four focus group participants that offered many ideas for improving recycling on campus.
Doug Hallowell, a member of the Students for a Green Campus, said football game days are a major problem when it comes to recycling. Coca Cola donated hundreds of recycling bins for game days, but all the recyclables that were collected this past season were either contaminated or trash was put in them. Unfortunately, the university could not use any of the recyclable material put in the donated bins. The focus group suggested the university place brighter colored bins and a larger quantity of bins around campus. They agreed this would encourage students to recycle on a day-to-day basis. Placing recycling bins next to trash cans would also encourage students to throw their bottle, in the correct bin rather than the trash can.
The lack of recycling in the stadium and on game days in only one problem at the university, recycling in classrooms and other various buildings is another whole issue the university needs to be aware of.
“Problem with the Honors College, it has been a really long time since they have been able to turn in recycling,” said Ole Miss Student, Matthew Archer.
Focus group members agreed that if the university would see a financial benefit to recycling it would be more likely to put more effort into recycling.
According to the Office of Campus Sustainability, the biggest sustainability problem at Ole Miss is the amount of electricity the university uses on a day-to-day basis. The second biggest problem on our campus is stationary combustion, a form of non- mobile energy usage. Since April 2008, the Office of Campus Sustainability has been working to improve these issues and recycling on campus.
At Tufts University in Boston, “recycling has remained stagnant for the past four years while our trash output continues to climb.”
Recycling remains to be a problem not at only at our university, but at many other universities around the United States, according to the Tufts University website.
In our focus group, some students said people will not want to attend the University of Mississippi if recycling efforts do not improve. Unless recycling efforts increase, enrollment at the university may go down, according to Matthew Archer, Ole Miss Student.
