Cabrini College is continuing the effort to be a a single-stream recycling institution. The college’s hauling company, J. P. Mascaro & Sons, changed to a single-stream system. The Green Team is working diligently to assure that this new system insures an increase in the recycling rates here at the college.
Within the past two years, J.P Mascaro & Sons has adopted the single stream recycling. They found that the pickup has been easier. However, they do not do the sorting onsite.
“We have been using the single-stream for at least two years now. We send all of you guys’ [Cabrini’s] recycling to Rapid Recycling where it is sorted. Cabrini did just add cardboard dispense to the pick up,” Karen Thompson, office manager at Mascaro, said.
The college’s Green Team, which consists of both student and faculty members, has a recycling committee. They have two goals that are ideal to campus wide recycling.
“Our short-term goal is to get signs on every bin that already exists,” Dr. Carrie Nielsen, assistant professor of biology and environmental science and chair of the Green Team, said during the first Green meeting of the year on Monday, Sept. 12 in the Wolfington Center. Nielsen speaks of the signs that were designed to be placed on bins so people know what goes in them.
Many students do not recycle because they do not know what to recycle, but they do not do so because of the inconvenience.
“I do recycle at home. I would here if it were convenient. If there was at least one bin in every restroom I would recycle here too,” Shanae Savage, sophomore business marketing major, said.
“The long-term goal is to get bins or at least reusable recycling bags for students to carry to larger containers in residence halls,” said Nielson
The Green Team continues their recycling mission by having Cabrini participate in Recyclemania. Susan Grover, assistant to the president of the college, and Cindy Ross, catalogue specialist, serve as co-chair of the recycling committee. Grover described the completion as, “a sociable competition among colleges in North America & Canada to inspire recycling on campuses. We also hope to promote greater recycling efforts for faculty, staff and students by providing information, resources and tools to make recycling easy, fun and habitual.“
Student and faculty are already responding well to the single stream recycling.
Madison Milano, freshman, was recruited for the recycling committee during Monday’s meeting because of her excitement and ideas for other recycling techniques and her knowledge of the single stream system
Grover stated, “It’s a win-win situation because it is easier to recycle when you don’t have to sort. Participation is easier and therefore larger, especially since a greater variety of paper types can be recycled like phone books or common household paper. It all gets mixed together.”
