Student Volunteers: Recycling
In light of the College receiving an A for student involvement in the latest College Sustainability Report Card, over the next few days I would like to highlight a few of the student volunteer efforts that make W&M so successful and unique among universities making strides in sustainability. There are quite a few student organizations and individuals who have put their hard work into making W&M a more environmentally friendly campus, and we owe them enormously for their efforts!
One of the most visible environmental issues on this or any campus is recycling. Accepted as one of the basic institutional commitments to sustainability, most every campus in the nation has some sort of recycling program. Here at W&M, our system is a bit unique in that it relies on the effort of student and staff volunteers. Cash-strapped as we are, it is up to individuals in offices or buildings across campus to collect their own recycling and take it to one of the large blue 8-cubic-yard Tidewater Fiber dumpsters located around campus.
As such, a few student organizations have grouped together in order to provide a more streamlined and efficient recycling program for many areas of campus. The Student Environmental Action Coalition, the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, and the Student Assembly have partnered on a volunteer recycling program that services much of old campus, both in academic buildings and outdoors. Those of you walking around campus should have noticed the new blue receptacles on the Sunken Garden and around the Sadler Center terrace. Provided by the Student Assembly & Facilities Management, and emptied by Alpha Phi Omega, these bins allow members of the College community to recycle on the go.
Emptying recycling bins is a never-ending (and sometimes thankless) process, and the students in APO, SEAC, and the SA who do it are often invisible to those walking by the bins each day. Their efforts, however, do not go unnoticed, and we thank them all for their great work!
