By Ryan Johnston
Students on this campus soon may feel the need to “Go Green” with a new college recycling committee.
President Robert Zeigler approved the committee called “SAC Go Green” at the request of the Student Government Association to inform students about becoming environmentally aware.
“It is important for us to contribute to the environment,” Mary Perez, Student Government Association president, said. “We need to give our part into saving the world we have. What will we leave to the future?”
The last student government at this college was interested in recycling, but discussions did not lead to a change in official college efforts.
Students wanted the college to encourage recycling more than paper and cardboard.
“The problem with recycling is that there are no bins,” Perez said. “They said it would be too much of a hassle and the janitors would have to work more. When we asked if we could do it, they told us not to get over our heads.”
At the moment, Perez said the college’s recycling company, Abitibi-Consolidated Inc., only recycles paper, but the association would like to expand to plastics and other recyclable materials, but were told it was too late to change the company contract and that they would have to wait until the next time the recycling contract was up for bid.
John Strybos, associate vice chancellor of facilities, said the recycling contract will be up for bid in April.
He said the district recycling committee is evaluating if the district should change its contract to include more than just paper and how they would do it.
The biggest change she would like to see with the committee is for bins to be placed in the classrooms because this is where students dispose of their trash.
“Classrooms are more accessible to students,” she said. “This would give them a reason to put it somewhere, instead of in the trash and not care what happens to it. It’s a way for students to be more environmentally friendly.”
She added the association was told that it would be more effective to put bins in more open areas, such as the hallways, because it could be too much of a mess and potentially create an insect problem.
Zeigler said that Tyler Archer, assistant coordinator of student leadership and activities, is on a district committee concerning the environment; therefore, her input will be a help to the college committee’s issues and concerns.
“I’m pleased SGA is taking this on and it coincides nicely with what Tyler is doing with the district,” Zeigler said. “This is a good opportunity to make a real contribution to the school.”
The first organizational meeting will be at 2 p.m. Thursday in the craft room of Loftin Student Center.
For more information, contact Archer at 733-2680 or tarcher1@mail.accd.edu.