By Kelly Douglas
Last December, University of Louisville students and faculty dug through heaps of trash to separate recyclables in order to promote U of L’s revamped recycling initiative. Following a shaky start, the program is finally underway.
Originally set to start at the beginning of the spring semester but set back due to some minor hold-ups, U of L’s university-wide recycling program has been well under way since the return from Spring Break.
Every residence hall on campus has a big red bin located in its lobby for recyclable products like glass, plastic, aluminum and metal cans. Miller Hall, Threlkeld Hall, and Unitas Tower have containers on each floor of their buildings as well.
There are also individual bins in 25 students’ dorm rooms that are being used for what Bill Brammell, SGA executive vice president, is calling “pilot programs.”
He said the individual containers have been placed in the dorm rooms to test the efficiency of recycling output when the bins are closer to the student.
“We have papers that have been passed out to these people so that they can mark every time that they’ve emptied their recycling container,” he said. “At the end of each month, [students] are supposed to submit those papers to me so that I can keep track of exactly how much their output is.”
Maggie Wehage, a freshman Economy major that resides in Miller Hall, said the bin placed on her floor is constantly filled with products such as milk jugs and aluminum cans.
“They have to be emptied everyday,” she said. “People are definitely using the bins.”
Lionel Maten, associate director for Facilities and Operations in Housing, said the bins will continue to be monitored and that, if the recycling response from students is frequent, more bins will be purchased.
Brammell hopes to see the program expand.
“As of right now, we’re going to measure success inside the residence halls and then, if success rates are high, hopefully we’ll be able to put them all across campus.”
Brammell said the Student Activities Center and Ekstrom Library would be the two main buildings that the SGA would focus on next to become part of the recycling program.
The program has cost the SGA less than $3,000, an amount that Brammell called a minimal fee for U of L to be an eco-friendly university.
