An unlikely crew of environmental activists has stepped up to the plate at Boston University.
That's right. The BU baseball club team has launched a new recycling campaign, encouraging students to put their old cell phones and ink cartridges to good use.
Baseball club team advisor Jason Factor said it is important for club teams to do projects like this because it helps to raise the presence of clubs on campus. For this project, each team member wraps, labels and places boxes in all of the major dormitories to collect and recycle used cell phones and ink cartridges.
"Part of being a club sport is doing community service and being part of the BU community," Factor said.
Next year's club president Mike Conway said with every member doing his part to be a "stand-up guy," the plan can be developed fairly easily.
"It's a really simple project," the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences sophomore said. "A player is assigned an individual box and dorm, and it's his job to periodically check the box until the project is over."
Factor said the future growth and expansion of the team is dependent on these kinds of projects, not only as a charitable act, but also to gain publicity.
"Raising awareness around campus is important not only to get people to try out," he said, "but we want to create a positive name for ourselves amongst the administration and let people know we're here."
Since the team recently joined the National Club Baseball Association, they will inevitably need to raise money, club president Nando Trindade said.
"Last year, we won our conference," the School of Engineering senior said. "But this year, we joined the National Association, and if we win again, we can go to Regionals, which we would need money to get to. We think the Student Union won't be as hesitant to support us when the time comes because we're helping the community."
Conway said the "easily accessible" nature of the project should attract students who are using printers a lot during the exam period.
"We all know how our ink comes and goes quickly with our number of assignments," he said. "So we just hope people will discard their empty cartridges with us."
Trindade said this is a "win-win situation" for everyone, because it benefits the baseball team, students and the environment.
"Generally, students are more concerned about the environment than others," he said. "If you're walking through your dorm, it doesn't require much effort to grab your ink cartridges and toss them in the box on your way out. I wouldn't see why people wouldn't do it. Recycling is one thing you can never really overdo."
Although the recycling project is scheduled for only one month, Factor said it is likely the bins be collected for a greater period of time if students utilize the program.
"Currently, we have it running through the month of March," he said. "If it's a big success - and we hope it will be - we can possibly continue it on for a little longer. We hope maybe it's something that grows."
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