GVSU off-campus recycling helping the environment in several different ways
by Sasha Butkovich
edited by Jared Greenleaf
Tori Guerrini is a stealth recycler. This isn’t to say that she dresses in black, dons a ski mask, and separates plastics from glass by moonlight. It simply means that she may bend a rule or two in the name of sustainability.
Guerrini keeps her recyclables in boxes in her dining room: paper and cardboard in one box, and glass, plastic and metal in the others. Paper grocery bags from Meijer and Family Fare, pasta boxes and old issues of the Grand Valley Lanthorn on the right. Plastic containers for organic lettuce, empty jars of Skippy Natural peanut butter, plastic apple juice bottles, and soup cans with the labels peeled off on the left.
When the boxes are full, she bags up the recyclables, drives them to the Allendale campus of Grand Valley State University and deposits them in the designated receptacle. She is forced to go through all this hassle because the apartment complex where she lives doesn’t offer recycling service. She is clearly dedicated to the cause. And she is also unintentionally helping the university in the RecycleMania contest.
RecycleMania is a competition lasting 10 weeks. During these 10 weeks, participating colleges and universities promote waste reduction activities on campus. The schools measure and report their recycling and trash data and are ranked based on these results. GVSU participated in RecycleMania for the first time last year, and the results on the event’s website, indicate that the school is already outdoing itself only four weeks into this year’s competition.
Guerrini is definitely not the only one helping to boost the university’s numbers. The natural resource management major and member of the Student Environmental Coalition said she knows plenty of people who do the same thing. This is due to the fact that the off-campus apartments in Allendale that house thousands of GVSU students don’t provide recycling service for their residents. But some people are passionate enough to recycle even when it isn’t convenient.
“I view recycling as a simple way for many to take a part in the care of our future,” Guerrini said. “Recycling helps reduce deforestation rates and the need to mine our natural resources that are already showing signs of dwindling.” She feels the apartment complexes don’t offer recycling service because they care about making money and not about their ecological footprint.
Steve Leeser, Operations Supervisor of Facilities Services, discouraged Guerrini’s brand of stealth recycling. She brings her recyclables to the container near the Laker Village Apartments. Leeser said GVSU pays $100 every time the waste management company picks up that container alone. He said when students living off-campus bring their recyclables to campus, they’re basically being subsidized by the university. As it is, Leeser said that recycling is not a money saver for the university in the big picture.
“It’s funded through the Facilities Services budget,” Leeser said, “but we do save money on items going to the landfill.” He explained that GVSU has to pay to have trash taken to the landfill. Of course, there are also costs involved with recycling.
“We don’t do it because it’s a money thing,” Leeser said, “We do it because it’s the right thing to do.” And the numbers show that students are getting on board. Over the years, there has been an increase in recycling on GVSU campuses. Interest in recycling has also grown, which brought RecycleMania to the university. Leeser organized the event at GVSU, but he said Student Senate, the Sustainability Office, and Housing and Food Services all had a hand in RecycleMania.
“For RecyleMania last year, we put ads in the Lanthorn and all over campus,” Leeser said. “We also updated the containers and increased the number of containers on campus.” He added that many students are into sustainability, and recycling is part of the initiative. But if he doesn’t want students living off-campus to use the on-campus facilities, then what’s a recycler to do?
For those who live in the city of Grand Rapids, curb-side recycling service is free. For the many students and residents of Allendale however, the process isn’t so simple. In Ottawa County, people have to drop off household recycling at one of the four Resource Recovery Service Centers in the county. There is a $40 annual membership fee to do this. Scott Schroeder from Ottawa County Environmental Health said this fee covers the cost of transportation to ship the recycling to the plants, like Recycle America in Wyoming. It also covers the rent for the 30-yard containers used to store the recyclables at the centers. Membership fees like this to recycle may become more commonplace due to the economic downturn.
“Like everything else, the economy is having a negative effect on the recycling industry,” Schroeder said. For cardboard and plastics made from crude oil, Schroeder said the commodity prices are not as high. Though his program doesn’t get into selling commodities because it doesn’t have a recycling plant, the effects of this can be seen elsewhere, even as close as in Grand Rapids. The economics of the industry boil down to the fact that recycling doesn’t make nearly as much money as it used to.
But this isn’t the recycling discussion heard around the campuses of GVSU. Students are hearing about RecycleMania and are encouraged to do their part. But many leave recycling at the door when they go home to their off-campus apartments. Leeser said he would encourage students to contact the owners of apartment complexes and ask for them to supply recycling service.
Guerrini took Leeser’s advice and approached the management of Country Place Apartments. They told Guerrini they tried providing the service before, but the residents didn’t use it. Guerrini thinks residents probably don’t feel invested in the community because very few of them will live in these off-campus apartments for more than a couple of years. The apartment complex doesn’t matter to them in the long term, and they won’t care enough to push the complex owners to offer recycling. Those students who do want to recycle will more likely opt for a short-term solution. Like stealth recycling.
“If recycling is so easy, and beneficial to our environment, is it not our duty to help save the planet that we hold so dear?” she asked. “Without steps toward sustainability, humans are predisposed to extinction.”
by Sasha Butkovich
edited by Jared Greenleaf
Tori Guerrini is a stealth recycler. This isn’t to say that she dresses in black, dons a ski mask, and separates plastics from glass by moonlight. It simply means that she may bend a rule or two in the name of sustainability.
Guerrini keeps her recyclables in boxes in her dining room: paper and cardboard in one box, and glass, plastic and metal in the others. Paper grocery bags from Meijer and Family Fare, pasta boxes and old issues of the Grand Valley Lanthorn on the right. Plastic containers for organic lettuce, empty jars of Skippy Natural peanut butter, plastic apple juice bottles, and soup cans with the labels peeled off on the left.
When the boxes are full, she bags up the recyclables, drives them to the Allendale campus of Grand Valley State University and deposits them in the designated receptacle. She is forced to go through all this hassle because the apartment complex where she lives doesn’t offer recycling service. She is clearly dedicated to the cause. And she is also unintentionally helping the university in the RecycleMania contest.
RecycleMania is a competition lasting 10 weeks. During these 10 weeks, participating colleges and universities promote waste reduction activities on campus. The schools measure and report their recycling and trash data and are ranked based on these results. GVSU participated in RecycleMania for the first time last year, and the results on the event’s website, indicate that the school is already outdoing itself only four weeks into this year’s competition.
Guerrini is definitely not the only one helping to boost the university’s numbers. The natural resource management major and member of the Student Environmental Coalition said she knows plenty of people who do the same thing. This is due to the fact that the off-campus apartments in Allendale that house thousands of GVSU students don’t provide recycling service for their residents. But some people are passionate enough to recycle even when it isn’t convenient.
“I view recycling as a simple way for many to take a part in the care of our future,” Guerrini said. “Recycling helps reduce deforestation rates and the need to mine our natural resources that are already showing signs of dwindling.” She feels the apartment complexes don’t offer recycling service because they care about making money and not about their ecological footprint.
Steve Leeser, Operations Supervisor of Facilities Services, discouraged Guerrini’s brand of stealth recycling. She brings her recyclables to the container near the Laker Village Apartments. Leeser said GVSU pays $100 every time the waste management company picks up that container alone. He said when students living off-campus bring their recyclables to campus, they’re basically being subsidized by the university. As it is, Leeser said that recycling is not a money saver for the university in the big picture.
“It’s funded through the Facilities Services budget,” Leeser said, “but we do save money on items going to the landfill.” He explained that GVSU has to pay to have trash taken to the landfill. Of course, there are also costs involved with recycling.
“We don’t do it because it’s a money thing,” Leeser said, “We do it because it’s the right thing to do.” And the numbers show that students are getting on board. Over the years, there has been an increase in recycling on GVSU campuses. Interest in recycling has also grown, which brought RecycleMania to the university. Leeser organized the event at GVSU, but he said Student Senate, the Sustainability Office, and Housing and Food Services all had a hand in RecycleMania.
“For RecyleMania last year, we put ads in the Lanthorn and all over campus,” Leeser said. “We also updated the containers and increased the number of containers on campus.” He added that many students are into sustainability, and recycling is part of the initiative. But if he doesn’t want students living off-campus to use the on-campus facilities, then what’s a recycler to do?
For those who live in the city of Grand Rapids, curb-side recycling service is free. For the many students and residents of Allendale however, the process isn’t so simple. In Ottawa County, people have to drop off household recycling at one of the four Resource Recovery Service Centers in the county. There is a $40 annual membership fee to do this. Scott Schroeder from Ottawa County Environmental Health said this fee covers the cost of transportation to ship the recycling to the plants, like Recycle America in Wyoming. It also covers the rent for the 30-yard containers used to store the recyclables at the centers. Membership fees like this to recycle may become more commonplace due to the economic downturn.
“Like everything else, the economy is having a negative effect on the recycling industry,” Schroeder said. For cardboard and plastics made from crude oil, Schroeder said the commodity prices are not as high. Though his program doesn’t get into selling commodities because it doesn’t have a recycling plant, the effects of this can be seen elsewhere, even as close as in Grand Rapids. The economics of the industry boil down to the fact that recycling doesn’t make nearly as much money as it used to.
But this isn’t the recycling discussion heard around the campuses of GVSU. Students are hearing about RecycleMania and are encouraged to do their part. But many leave recycling at the door when they go home to their off-campus apartments. Leeser said he would encourage students to contact the owners of apartment complexes and ask for them to supply recycling service.
Guerrini took Leeser’s advice and approached the management of Country Place Apartments. They told Guerrini they tried providing the service before, but the residents didn’t use it. Guerrini thinks residents probably don’t feel invested in the community because very few of them will live in these off-campus apartments for more than a couple of years. The apartment complex doesn’t matter to them in the long term, and they won’t care enough to push the complex owners to offer recycling. Those students who do want to recycle will more likely opt for a short-term solution. Like stealth recycling.
“If recycling is so easy, and beneficial to our environment, is it not our duty to help save the planet that we hold so dear?” she asked. “Without steps toward sustainability, humans are predisposed to extinction.”
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GVSU Recycling Stats
2002-2003 School Year Recycling Stats
476.1 tons of paper, cardboard, books, glass, plastic, tin
18.8 tons of metal
2.0 tons of computers
0.7 batteries
0.2 tons of florescent light bulbs
2003-2004 Recycling Stats
412.3 tons paper, cardboard, glass, plastic
10.9 tons metal scrap bin
3.5 tons metal delivered
3.0 tons computers
0.8 tons batteries
0.8 light bulbs
2004-2005 Recycling Stats
410.7 tons paper, cardboard, glass, plastic
12.3 tons metal scrap bin
2.1 tons metal delivered
3.5 tons computers
0.5 tons batteries
5.5 tons project donation - move out
0.4 light bulbs
2005-2006 Recycling Stats
449.1 tons of paper, cardboard, books, glass, plastic, tin
9.7 tons of metal
4.7 tons of computers
0.8 tons of batteries
6 tons from Project Donation
4.8 tons of pallets
0.1 tons of florescent light bulbs
2006-2007 Recycling Stats
479.4 tons of paper, cardboard, books, glass, plastic, tin
14.4 tons of metal
10.5 tons of computers
0.7 tons of batteries
6.6 tons from Project Donation
2.6 tons of pallets
0.6 tons of florescent light bulbs
2007-2008 Recycling Stats
608.4 tons of paper, cardboard, books, glass, plastic, tin
4.5 tons of metal
13.9 tons of computers
0.6 tons of batteries
10.3 tons from Project Donation
.2 tons of pallets
1.5 tons of florescent light bulbs
2007-2008 Recycle VS. Landfill
639.5 tons of recycling
1519.1 tons of material were sent to the land fill
30%of GVSU waste was recycled in the 07-08 school year
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