Ours is a generation that, by and large, professes to care about the environment. Academic and business research shows that Generation Y, those born between from the early 80s to the early 90s, values the environment at a much greater rate than that of our parents. Anecdotes abound – Monday’s edition of The Daily Athenaeum even featured the volunteer efforts of the WVU ski team as they traveled to Blue Hole to clean up discarded trash. Yet, sometimes it seems as if our alleged environmental compassion is overblown. For example, the Mountainlair Green area was covered with trash that students failed to throw away following the concert even though there were some 30 recycling bins placed around the Commons area. A quick trip through Sunnyside down Grant Street reveals more of the same – wherever college students go we leave a trail of trash in our wake. And students everywhere continue to perpetuate the environmental disaster that is bottled water. What is most disconcerting is that a majority of the trash that is filling up our overflowing landfills or left on the ground for that matter is recyclable. The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that only 45.1 percent of aluminum soda and beer cans are recycled, while only 30.9 percent of plastic bottles are recycled. According to the EPA, recycling just one ton of aluminum cans is the energy equivalent of saving about 1,665 gallons of gasoline. These statistics become increasingly important as the WVU football season begins Saturday, and the beloved Mountaineer tailgating tradition reconvenes. Football fans should take advantage of opportunities to recycle this Saturday. "We’ll have bins set up in the parking lots near the stadium, in the stadium and on the fringes, and volunteers will be handing out bags," said Barbara Angeletti, WVU Recycling Coordinator when asked about the gold and blue recycling bins, which have become a stadium fixture since their inception. These are the efforts of Mountaineers Recycle, which is beginning its fourth year of existence this fall. "In three seasons of Mountaineers Recycle, we have recycled 37 tons of game day waste. For every pound of aluminum we’re talking about 31 empty cans ... so it is significant," Angeletti said. Thankfully, much of the pollution on and off campus here is tackled by various volunteer efforts like this. The work of Mountaineers Recycle, Friends of Deckers Creek and the WVU Student Sierra Coalition should be applauded. Students should try to clean up our act, and the WVU community as a whole should take advantage of the recycling opportunities available all across campus.
Take advantage of many recycling opportunities
Published: Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, September 1, 2009
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