Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

Each year, a significant amount of recyclable waste ends up in landfills, polluting the earth. On campus at Penn State Behrend it is easy to reduce the amount in which an individual contributes to landfill waste by utilizing the various sustainable resources around campus. Resources available to students range from recycling of various types, to composting, to becoming more involved and aware of the environment through clubs and events. 

All residence halls include two garbage cans upon move-in, one of which is a blue bin designated for students to keep their recyclable products in. In the lobby of all on-campus residence halls, an orange bin should be available in the lobby for recycling to be deposited into. This makes recycling even easier than taking out the trash, as students do not typically even need to leave their building in order to recycle. The orange bins in residence halls are new this year, as a way to increase the amount of recycling that takes place as well as making sure only proper items make it into the recycling bins. 

Near every recycling bin on campus, including the large blue recycling bins located in commonly frequented buildings such as the Reed Union Building and Burke, there should be a waste management sign posted detailing what things should not enter recycling due to it being a contaminant. No food or liquids should ever be inside items that are being recycled. 

Plastic has several misconceptions surrounding it in regards to recycling. First, no recycling should be placed inside of a plastic bag. This means that when students are emptying the recycling into the proper bins, it should not be inside any form of garbage bag, but instead should be placed as loose recyclables. Most thin plastics such as bags or plastic packaging cannot be recycled.

When items are recycled incorrectly it can cause detrimental damage to the machines that process recycling, slowing down the entire process. This can also damage machines, and costs a large amount of money to repair and make up for time lost.

An email went out to students several weeks ago showing footage from one of the trucks that pick up recycling. The truck had noticed there was a plastic bag in the recycling, and the driver stopped promptly to remove it from the truck before it could get mixed in. Many of these trucks are equipped with cameras to help protect from this exact thing, but if it had been missed and gone to recycling the damages could have cost thousands of dollars. Recycling the proper items is very important in order for it to actually be sustainable and processed correctly. 

Cardboards such as boxes students have delivered to them should be collapsed, and then deposited directly into the recycling dumpsters, not the residence hall bins. The recycling dumpster on campus is located between the on-campus apartments and Trippe hall. These bins have a slot for cardboard to be inserted, but the lids remain locked to avoid cross contamination so students cannot take other recycling directly to this location. 

Additionally, other plastic items should only be placed in recycling bins if they are marked as recyclable, because not all types of plastic can go through the process. Type one and type two plastics are typically recyclable, but make sure to check each item. Also, avoid paper plates, napkins, cups and tissues as they are not recyclable forms of paper, however they still can oftentimes be composted. 

Although recycling on campus is a great way to reduce waste and act sustainably, there is always more that can be done. Currently, Behrend has composting programs in both Bruno’s and Dobbins for consumer waste, run through a local company Conservation Compost. In Brunos all pre consumer food waste is composted, and dobbins composts all pre and post consumer compost. 

Conservation Compost is a local startup business Behrend is partnering with for the sustainable composting programs. The company opened in 2021, just prior to the covid-19 pandemic. Their mission is, “to divert organic materials destined for landfills into valuable, locally produced compost.” Conservation Compost is the region’s first large-scale commercial composting facility which provides cost-effective composting and waste disposal solutions.

Students should try to pay attention when possible to their consumer waste, and recycle or compost waste whenever possible. Finding sustainable solutions to waste management when possible can have a dramatic impact on the level of overall consumer waste that is produced, and sustainable options are readily available to students through the on-campus initiatives.