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If you talk to most anyone around the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College, including students, faculty or staff, they would likely agree that the recycling program in place there isn’t working. As for why it isn’t working, there are many conflicting viewpoints and more than just a little confusion.

According to the head of the Green Committee for NOVA, Ray Bailey, for the last 18 months each campus of NOVA has had a recycling contract. The campuses in Fairfax County, including Annandale and Medical Education campuses, have a contract with the county to pick up recycling. Bailey stated, “All other campuses are covered by Con-Serv Industry (CSI).” Bailey also explained that all the contracts are for “single-stream” recycling, which means that paper, plastic bottles and glass can all go in the recycling bins.

Aurang Zeb, the Head of Facilities at Alexandria campus, confirmed that Alexandria has a contract with CSI to pick up recycling and that the contract is for single-stream recycling. So, if there is a contract at Alexandria to pick up recycling, why isn’t the recycling being, well, recycled?

According to Zeb, the reason the recycling program isn’t working is because those on campus aren’t recycling properly. He said very little recycling is actually put into the recycle bins, and what is put into the recycle bins is compromised by food waste.

According to Bailey, “Other campuses are making it work.” He said that, at Alexandria, it is “a campus problem rather than a contract problem.”

Zeb explained that he thinks the problem lies with people on campus not caring about recycling. He suggested watching students when throwing out trash and recycling to see whether they put their waste in the right places. He also thinks they may not know how or are in too much of a hurry to do it properly.

When the question was posed to Zeb of whether the staff is recycling the contents of the recycle bins, he stated that the staff has been shown what to do with the recycling, and they are doing what they can. He then described what it feels like to a staff member when that person reaches into the recycle bins and come up with a hand covered in ketchup. If there is ketchup in the recycle bins, at least some people are putting trash in the recycle bins along with recycling.

So, how hard is it to put bottles, cans and paper into a separate bin?

Some have suggested that the bins are not marked well and that buying or creating more clearly-marked bins is the answer.

Alexandria campus Community Relations Coordinator Ken Balbuena said, “It’s just a matter of finding bins that are obviously recycling bins… The students and faculty are interested in recycling on campus.”

So what is the problem here? Is it that the students and other people on campus are not environmentally aware enough to know that recycling is the smart thing to do? Is it a case of the cleaning staff not following recycling instructions? Or is it simply a case of students not being able to find what may be poorly-marked containers? Alexandria campus Student Government Vice President Jarrel Hall said, “Students are trying to recycle, but it’s frustrating because what’s in the recycle bins gets thrown away.”

Whatever the issue is, it is clear that many people on campus are concerned about what is happening with recycling on the Alexandria campus.

“It would be good for the Alexandria campus to be more environmentally conscious and be a green leader in the community,” said Balbuena.

English professor Denny May explained that the community of Alexandria is a green one and that, if the Alexandria campus is in a green community, it should follow their good example. He added that there is “untapped green sentiment” in the college.

Some people are stepping up to the challenge of getting the Alexandria campus to be greener.

Hall made it clear that the Alexandria campus SGA is currently involved in trying to raise funds for new recycle bins. They will try to make a big push toward the goal of obtaining new bins during the Earth Day celebrations on campus next month.

Bailey and the Green Committee of NOVA, including Victor Zabielski, the Alexandria representative for the committee, have been working with the college administration to try to get the recycling program going.

Another project the Green Committee has been working on is creating a new position in the college, a Sustainability Coordinator. Zabielski stated that many colleges have this position on staff, and their responsibilities include monitoring sustainability on campus and looking for grants to fund environmental projects for the school. He also believes there is an issue with the recycling program on the Alexandria campus. “In addition to signage and standardized recycling containers, implementation of the program is the weak point. The barrier is the chain of command.”

According to the 2007 document “Educational Facilities and the Impact of Technology, Expectations, and Competition,” there is a headline-making commitment that college presidents across the nation are signing called The American College and University President’s Climate Commitment.

When a college president signs the statement, he or she is committing the campus to “immediately reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work toward climate neutrality.” Not only that, but it “urges presidents to adopt green standards for buildings, require Energy Star certifications for purchases… encourage the use of public transportation, and purchase energy from renewable sources.”

As of late 2007, the President’s Climate Commitment has drawn 415 college and university presidents to their ranks of signees since its birth early that same year. Some of the institutions that have signed on include Cornell University, Arizona State, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Florida and Washington and Lee University.

So, no matter where the problem lies in the series of issues surrounding the recycling program at NOVA’s Alexandria campus, the main question is: What is going to be done about it?

Are those on campus going to look more closely at the current receptacles to see where they should throw bottles, cans and paper as opposed to their trash? Truly, how hard is that? Is the cleaning staff going to go that extra mile and separate the waste from the recycling? Is the college administration going to take on the responsibility of making NOVA a greener school? It is clear that there is much that needs to be done, so who will step up to the plate and give more than just lip service?

Care to comment on this topic? Look for it online at NOVAFortnightly.com.

By: Ashley Strobridge

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