ONLINE CONTENT - Campus Recycling Needs Student Touch

Valley College's recycling program has been minimally successful due to Valley staff's recycling skills and a lack of student participation.

A California recycling mandate given to state institutions requires half of all industrial waste, such as shrubs, grass, and paper, to be recycled. Valley's informal "solid paper" recycling program helps meet the regulations and has already shown success because of the staff's vigorous recycling.

"The program we are doing in the offices appears to be working," said Vice President of Administrative Services Tom Jacobsmeyer. "We need to spread this program out, we can't just be satisfied with doing the program in the offices only"

Jacobsmeyer continued, "We need to spread it out in the student area, which is in the outer areas of the campus. Some of our biggest problems are students who just throw trash on the ground."

Recycling appears to be a large step for some who find it difficult to even place trash in the garbage. "I usually grab a bite to eat from one of the vending machines and toss the trash on the floor because I'm lazy and I know custodians will clean up my mess," said Trevor Lee, a former Valley student. "Everybody does it. Besides, what's the point of recycling on campus when they won't even lower book prices?"

According to Jacobsmeyer, there are 800 staff members and more than 17,000 students on campus that all contribute to the waste, but only a few help clean up. "A program is only as successful as the people who participate in it," he said. "The more students that participate in the recycling program, the more successful [we can be]."

Jacobsmeyer praised the efficacy of the recycling staff's work, but also said, "If you were to ask all students [to recycle], you'd probably find that 80 percent would say 'sure I'd love to recycle'-but they don't."

According to Director of College Facilities Tom Lopez, student's priorities are education and work, rather than recycling.

"I recycle my own trash on campus, but not other [places]," said Nancy Espinoza, a nursing major. "If I had the time between work, my kids, and class, I probably would recycle more."

Lopez explained that Valley only needs 42 student volunteers to go through 21 of the most congested buildings. It would take two students per building to go through once a week to make the program more successful, according to Lopez.