The Office of Student Affairs started a recycling program this semester; putting bins around campus for aluminum cans and plastic bottles.

   Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Clay Brown started the program to promote awareness of environmental issues.

   “It’s the first year we are doing this and we are hoping it will continue to grow,” Brown said. “We started off with small steps, starting off at some of the athletic events. We hope it will grow into a campus-wide initiative.”

   Brown said once the new shipment of bins comes in, they would be placed in all residence halls and academic buildings and to contact his office if some place was missed.

   Although a few bins have been in place at athletic events and the tailgate area, not everyone uses them yet, Brown said.

   “It's going to take a little while for people to get educated and learn instead of dropping that can or plastic bottle in the trash can, we now have some designated bins,” he said.  “It’s just going to take a little time breaking peoples habits.“

   For a few years now, campus organizations set up recycling bins for aluminum cans at specific areas for fund-raisers. Both the library staff and administration use maintenance to recycle goods like paper, cardboard and ink cartages.

   The Biology Club placed bins throughout the Math and Science Center and the Creative Society placed a bin in the Writing Center. Brown said he hopes to bring all recycling under one program.

   Creative Society Adviser Gary Marshall said recycling is a good way to raise money and to educate people on the importance of recycling.

    “We’re in the education business,” Marshall said. “We need to re-emphasize, reintroduce, to educate people that it’s so important not to waste; to reuse and recycle.”

   Environmental issues became a hot topic of discussion in recent years with notable figures like ex-Vice President Al Gore going promoting environmental awareness.

   Marshall said people need to be more involved in preserving the environment and programs like recycling make a difference.

   “Basically recycling is so important right now, because we really have realized our resources are limited,” he said. “Instead of using raw materials we can recycle so much. As a campus, as an individual, a nation/state culture, we finally realize we need to do that.

   “Our pioneer forefathers and foremothers recycled everything. Not necessarily for the same purpose, but used it again and again and again till it’s all used up to nothing. That was an important part of our culture that we sort of lost as a consumer society. We need to get back to that pioneer spirit of recycling.”

   Brown agrees and added a few reasons why recycling so important.

   “No. 1, it helps prevent the landfill problem that is becoming an environmental crisis around the country,” Brown said  “No. 2, it re-circulates the material that can be used again in different way, so it helps the consumer.”

   Associate Director of the Physical Plant Rusty Rippee heads the involvement of the maintenance staff’s involvement with recycling.

   Rippee uses two different methods to recycle paper, one from shredded and another for whole documents. The City of Monticello picks up all shredded paper at no cost for recycling, but for non-shredded paper he pays for a service.

   He said the university bought a large paper shredder. The administration building uses its own shredders to minimize the cost of recycling, but Rippee does not have the time or man-hours to shred every piece of paper.

   A full-time employee is needed to run the recycling effort on campus, and Rippee said a position might be created if Brown’s initiative for a campus-wide program encompasses all aspects of recycling.

   Brown said he plans to have paper, ink cartridge and battery recycling programs in the near future, but wants to concentrate his efforts first on aluminum cans and bottles.