Recycling Crew Experiences

By Jeetendra Gupta

On September 10, 2018, I joined the Recycling Crew of Ramapo College. Our responsibility was to collect recyclable items from the housing blocks throughout the campus and then store them in the big recycling containers, so that the recycling company could collect them from there.

We had to drag the full recycling bins to the storing location, and then manually raise them to a certain height to dump into the big container. It was a physical job, which we considered as an exercise. We lost some fat, built some muscle and were quite healthy. We worked two days a week from 6 pm to 10 pm. On Monday, we collected the recycling materials from Bischoff, Mackin, CPAs, and the Overlook. On Thursday, we collected the recycling items from Laurel, Pine, and the Village. We always wore gloves and worked in every weather condition. Rain and snow did not affect our schedule unless it was exceptionally bad weather. We always notified the residence halls if our schedule changed due to such bad weather.

Most common items that we collected were water bottles, alcohol/wine bottles (invillage), aluminum cans, milk gallon, house appliances, paper and cardboard. Many times we used to get pizza boxes which were not part of the recyclable items. Students often mixed nonrecyclable items, making it challenging for us as we had to separate them from the recyclables. Many times we found used condoms as well. It was a disgusting experience. We were surprised to see such unawareness of the students. A college student should know some basic differences. Moreover, the maintenance department had clearly outlined the recyclable and nonrecyclable items, which the students could easily see on the college website.

All of us were also surprised to see the amount of the recycling materials. Many times the larger storing containers were filled and we had to store the items in the smaller bins. Every week we accumulated about 14 big containers of recyclables. That’s a huge number!

The water bottles were the most used ones. We were surprised to find that observation because every apartment was provided with drinking tap water. In Mackin and Bishoff, there is only one fountain on each floor. It can be inferred that students found it convenient to purchase water instead of going out of their room to the fountain, then filling water into their bottles, and then coming back. In CPAs and the Village, though there is tap water in every apartment, still many students relied on purchased water. It was difficult for us to understand. Was it the cheap price of water, or was it the health consciousness, or was it convenience of using purchased water, or was it the laziness to fill water from tap, or was it an American habit, or was it a lack of awareness about the effect of plastic bottles on the environment? What was the reason? Maybe all.

To our disappointment, we found that almost every club activities, and hall programs made a heavy use of purchased water, plastic spoons, knives and forks, and plates. Almost every week, at least a club and a residence hall organized a hall program, resulting in a big number of such plastic items. The clubs and the residence hall could have chosen to go environment friendly by asking the students to bring their own supplements. To our relief, there were a few clubs such as We Care that did ask the students to bring their own items. These clubs believed in world sustainability and participated in the Climate Strike. Moreover, these clubs distributed water bottles to reduce use of purchased water. I also got one bottle. We, the Recycling Crew, supported these clubs by participating in their activities as well as in the Climate Strike. Ramapo College needs more of these kinds of environment friendly clubs.

I worked on the Recycling Crew for a year, in which I came to realize about the importance of reducing and recycling. Seeing a large number of water bottles left me deeply disappointed and thus made me use tap water all the time. I saw a good change in myself and supported the environment even more. I wish the students, the clubs and the residence halls become more aware of their choices and their habits and try to be more environment friendly.