Students target support for recycling initiative

Boston University environmental groups sought to jumpstart a campus recycling initiative yesterday afternoon at Marsh Plaza, distributing literature on increasing sustainability efforts and encouraging students to compete with each other to recycle the most items.

BU Green, a recently formed environmental-conservation group, held its Recycling Competition kickoff in an effort to increase campus recycling through competition among residence halls, said Green Project Chairman Isaac Kastenbaum, a School of Management sophomore. Capital Paper, BU's recycling pickup service based in Weymouth, will measure the amount of recyclables collected in each dorm once a week for a month.

University-administered groups from the Environmental Student Organization, the Environmental Health and Safety Office and the Waste Management Team distributed brochures detailing how students can recycle and how to properly dispose of those recyclables. Others promoted recycling and conservation by demonstrating environmentally friendly inventions and petitions for change.

Green representatives encouraged students to sign an open letter to President Robert Brown released online Feb. 20. The letter urges the BU administration to work toward sustainability as a key value in Brown's Strategic Planning Task Force report, which was released in October 2006 and does not mention environmental initiatives. The petition has received more than 1,000 signatures.

Geography professor Nathan Phillips also displayed his homemade energy-generating bicycle at the event, which combined mechanical energy from Phillips's own pedaling as well as solar energy to power his laptop. Phillips said the bicycle helps reduce carbon-based fuel consumption.

The ESO also displayed a mural titled "Leaves of Oath," depicting a tree with student handprints as leaves and signatures under the prints representing pledges to be more environmentally conscious.

Students' recycling efforts will be measured on a per-person basis, so there will be no advantage given to larger dorms, said Green member Gitte Venicx, a College of Arts and Sciences senior, before the event. A prize will be awarded to the winning dorm.

Although recycling facilities are already available on campus, Venicx said there are not enough bins to match BU's size.

ESO secretary Rachel Leone, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, said environmental groups should place a greater emphasis on conserving energy.

"It's about conservation first," she said. "Recycling is important, but reducing is a lot better."

BU Waste Reduction Team leader Rebecca Haskell, who will oversee the recyclable measurements throughout the competition, said there is a need for increased recycling awareness.

"To increase recycling in the dormitories, BU needs to make it convenient for the students by adding recycling to each floor of the dormitories," the School of Education sophomore said in an email. "They also need to integrate it into a part of the community."

"You can recycle any type of paper, even magazines . . . any plastic bottle, as long as it's clean," Kastenbaum said before the event. "Besides the opportunity in the dorm, Office of Environmental Health and Safety [offers] recycling for electronics and batteries."

Students who use electronic devices, including cell-phone and laptop charger on a daily basis, contribute to carbon-based fuel usage and negatively affect the environment, said Assistant Provost Michael Field.

"Since the advent of the computer, electricity consumption has gone sky-high," he said. "These become habits that people in conservation [have to influence]. That's hard to do."

Green representatives hope to reserve a space on campus where students can bring their leftover items at the end of the school year to recycle, Haskell said.