Audit sorts through trash

The participants of the waste audit that took place last Wednesday on Front Campus found some interesting treasures among lots and lots of trash.
The Environmental Science Club, along with Dr. Doug Oetter’s seminar class on environmental campus audits, put on the audit in an effort to bring more awareness and initiative on recycling at GCSU.
“We took a representative sample of trash from different buildings around campus like Terrell, Arts & Sciences and some of the dorms and basically dug through it to see what percentage of the stuff is recyclable and what is not,” said Robin Barker, a junior political science major and president of the Environmental Science Club. “We sorted everything out and we are going to calculate the weight and we are going to see what the value of it is that we could get on the market.”
It wasn’t just environmental science majors that participated in the audit, several students volunteered to dig through trash, including members of SGA, as well as passers-by. 
“I didn’t realize how interesting this was going to be,” said Scott Murray, a junior environmental science major. “We have found a working television, two unopened cans of beer, an unscratched CD that we have been playing for everyone’s listening pleasure and a beautiful pair of women’s underwear that have some feathers attached to them.”  
Sorting through garbage was not the only part of the audit. There was also a petition for students to sign in favor of implementing a more large-scale recycling program on campus. Participants in the waste audit urged students to sign-on using a large and very loud megaphone. But they didn’t have to work too hard as many students seemed willing to offer their support.
“I think this is great,” said Kim Stowsick, a junior psychology major.  “I have been waiting for something like this to happen because I drink a lot of bottled water and have no place to recycle them, so I think its great that they are doing this.”
By the end of the day, over 600 students had signed the petition and participants in the audit had weighed out over 1,000 pounds of trash that could be recycled instead of being thrown into a landfill.
Almost half of that trash came from the Arts & Sciences building with the Kilpatrick building and the grounds around campus following close behind. The results of the audit and the petition will be presented to the school, and will hopefully present enough evidence to implement a successful recycling program at GCSU.
Dr. Oetter, advisor for the Environmental Science Club, is confident that a program would succeed on campus.
“To make this the type of green campus that we want, it’s going to take a big effort,” Oetter said.  “It is a big effort, but for an individual it’s not. When an individual has the option of recycling or trashing, they will do the right thing. If we just have the right collection and processing facilities in place, then I think that we could have a successful program on this campus.”
   To find out more about environmental audits, visit the Environmental Club Web site at www2.gcsu.
edu/orgs/student/esc/.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 13 2006. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry