Through the continuing efforts of the Sustainability Committee in cooperation with the Fraternity and Sorority Life Office, a recycling program has reached Bradley’s greek chapters.
According to Sustainability Committee member Sarah Handler, the plan is now in effect, although it will continue in increments. Only paper will be recycled for the first week, with plastic and metal in the following weeks.
Handler, a senior industrial engineering major, said she has always had the concept of including greek life in recycling efforts, but administration said it didn’t have funds for the project.
With help from the Sustainability Committee, Handler contacted the Peoria Disposal Company and arranged to get a reduced rate for the chapters as a whole. Currently, there are four chapters signed up for the recycling program: Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Delta, Phi Kappa Tau and Delta Tau Delta.
However, when curiosity was polled in December, 16 of the 20 said they wanted to participate.
“It’s really exciting,” Assistant Director for Fraternity and Sorority Life Nancy Schwartz said. “I’m really proud of our students.”
Handler said she hopes more sororities and fraternities will sign up. According to Handler, obstacles faced by sororities when signing up are their house corporations, some of which are hesitant to commit the funds.
“I think right now, greek life is the single biggest untapped source of potential recycling on campus,” Handler said. “We’ve never had a comprehensive recycling in fraternity [and] sorority housing ever, and we do have it through the rest of campus.”
Although there is a fee associated with the recycling program, there is an incentive included besides caring for the environment. For each month of recycling with no cross-contamination issues, chapters are eligible for a $10 donation to its philanthropy.
“Actually, I think it’s just another great step for the university as a part of an awareness for the students,” Planning Supervisor and Sustainability Coordinator Kim Green said. “The students are actually the ones that had brought this to the attention of the administration, so I think that the students are helping the students to be more aware.”
According to Green, this arrangement is great in terms of students being responsible adults, reserving campus resources and reducing waste.
“We have several different areas we look at for sustainability,” Green said. “One of [the areas that is] the most visible [is recycling], and most students and staff are aware of recycling. So, we continue to try to improve on the recycling.”
This program ties in with the new Dining Services venture to increase awareness about campus waste.
“It’s that idea of sustainability [that] may take a little different attitude in terms of our approach to our daily life,” Green said. “However, that extra effort is also paying us back.”
With the greater concern over Dining Services waste and recycling efforts on campus, there has been a push for sustainability on campus in the last few years.
“We didn’t really have much sustainability on campus when I came here my freshman year, and since then, there’s been considerable change,” Handler said.
According to Handler, finding creative ways to fund this project is one of the biggest challenges.
Earth Day is the Sustainability Committee’s next big project, and Handler said they hope to work with other university offices to highlight the importance of sustainability.
