Student Government Association is making efforts to reimplement a functional recycling program on campus.
University officials began a partnership in Fall 2009 with the “Blue Goes Green” initiative, a recycling program for college campuses. Workers placed 120 recycle bins around campus to recycle paper, plastic and cardboard at that time, according to the university’s website, okcu.edu. They also planned to add aluminum cans, printer cartridges and light bulbs to the collection list, the website reads. Dr. Adam Ryburn, professor of biology, said this addition was never made on a university level.
Alumnus Ken Williams, former president of the Repurposing Club, wrote a bill in Spring 2017 asking for money to purchase 200 recycling bins to be placed in each United Methodist Hall room. The bill later passed with a smaller amount of bins under former SGA President Randy Gipson-Black’s Blue Initiative, a replacement of the Blue Goes Green initiative. Money was transferred to Young Democrats to purchase the bins, the Repurposing Club having been left without leadership. The organization purchased 180 bins, and SGA members placed recycling bins in Methodist Hall last year.
Those bins are no longer out for use, SGA President Jordan Tarter said.
“We had a pilot program for recycling, which was our tiny bins in each room,” Tarter said. “It was a student job to collect them. And I’ve noticed that, since then, those bins are not in rooms anymore, they’re in the basement.”
Tarter said staffing changes in housing and administration might be connected to the pause on recycling.
“I understand that things take time whenever you have a transition,” she said. “There’s so much shift in housing and administration.”
Tarter met Tuesday with President Martha Burger to discuss the Blue Goes Green initiative and other policies.
“I’m trying to do my job and be that immediate connection from the student body to administration,” she said.
Tarter said she hopes to bring reusable, recyclable and biodegradable products to campus.
“One of my plans is to expand our green campus,” she said. “Paper straws, more recycling, and just really focusing on the green initiative.”
Kyle Copp, cell and molecular biology senior, said bringing recycling back to campus is important in the preservation of a clean campus.
“Bringing recycling back to OCU can definitely have an impact in reducing the amount of waste going to landfills, as well as reduce the use of natural resources we have, because they won’t last forever,” Copp said.
Leave a Reply