A Mixed Bag of Results
Survey Reveals Holes
In GM Recycling Program (related
Editorial)
By Anna Duning, Margaret Lipman
and Kirsti Price (May 2, 2007)
According to a Lasso Online investigation of
65 classrooms, nearly 60 percent of George Mason facilities are
not equipped with either mixed paper or cans and bottles recycling
bins. Furthermore, 58% of the surveyed rooms had recycling material
in the trash bins, while 45% had trash in the recycling bins.
Although Mason students and faculty may not be aware of the implications
of mixing waste, throwing a single apple core or plastic bag
into a recycling bin causes all of
the container’s contents to be disposed of as trash. Based on
the survey’s results, it appears that a significant amount of
potentially recyclable garbage is being sent to landfills rather
than to recycling sites.
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Lasso Online staff members visited 65
of the 87 classrooms in the school building to inspect
the recycling conditions. They first checked whether
all three types of bins—trash, mixed paper, and cans
and bottles—were in the room and furthermore, if trash
and recyclable materials had been misplaced. This last
inquiry is particularly important, because it determines
how much recycling inevitably becomes garbage.
While Lasso Online research
demonstrated many classrooms are ill-equipped, a considerable
part of the problem appears to be a disregard by the
Mason population. In a Lasso Online Internet survey of
366 readers, 56 percent indicated they “hardly ever recycle” at
school while 31 percent responded they “sometimes recycle” and
the remaining 11 percent replied they “always recycle
when cans are available.”
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One bad apple
or one misguided pizza crust really can spoil the
whole bunch as trash that is thrown into a paper
recycling bin means that all the
contents of that bin is disposed of as trash.
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Somewhat contrary to this information,
head of the custodial staff Eduardo Molina estimated that about
75
percent of the school’s potentially recyclable material is recycled,
primarily the hundreds of newspapers that are thrown out daily.
Nonetheless, his staff has noticed some lack of effort in some
classrooms and for this reason, puts trash bags in all the bins,
regardless of their assigned contents, so they do not need to
scrub the sticky residue of a half-consumed diet coke from the
sides of a paper bin.
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While custodians do correctly dispose of the contents
of designated recycling bins, they are not assigned to physically
extract misplaced items. “I don’t have the manpower to go in there
and pick through the trash,” said Molina. Thus, in order to ensure
that the school’s waste is properly disposed of, students and faculty
are expected to respect the labels that indicate the type of trash
that belongs in each receptacle. “It’s really more of an awareness
program,” said Molina.
However, with limited bins in each classroom,
members of the Mason community often find little choice when they
go to throw out an empty plastic water bottle and find only one
unlabeled bin filled with an old geometry test, yesterday’s half-eaten
ham and cheese and a Styrofoam cup of a Robek’s Guava Lava smoothie.
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(Graphic
by Jeremiah Upton)
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The bins were first installed and labeled
in each classroom several years ago when a senior class took on this
environmental cause as its service project. At school assemblies and
within TAs, Masonites were both informed about the recycling program
and encouraged to take on the responsibility.
Recently, Falls Church City Schools Superintendent
Dr. Lois Berlin asked the schools to study ways in which the amount
of recycled materials could be increased and Principal Bob Snee has
asked his entire staff to be more recycling-conscious. Yesterday, Snee
and Molina met with the environmental club to begin strategizing ways
to reinitiate a functioning recycling program. “There was once a real
strong spirit within the school, a sense of duty and obligation to
recycle,” said Snee, “we need to resurrect that spirit.”
Tell us
what you think.
E-mail lassogmhs@hotmail.com
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