WISPIRG sorts garbage, recyclables
by Elizabeth Mathie
Monday, November 10, 2008
Not
even the cold Wisconsin weather could keep the Wisconsin Student Public
Interest Research Group, aided by REthink Wisconsin, from holding its
trash sort event on Library Mall Friday afternoon.
Members
collected bags of trash from University of Wisconsin buildings and
sorted through them beneath a tent, separating recyclable items from
garbage.
The garbage bags were put onto tarps, so as not to
litter Library Mall. Recycling items were taken out of the trash bags
by gloved volunteers and put directly into new bags depending on what
type of item they were.
Devin Trezise, co-coordinator of
WISPIRG’s Conservation and Recycling Efforts division, said he was
hopeful the event would make an impression on volunteers as well as
passers-by.
“This is a good way to get WISPIRG CARE interns
and volunteers involved in actually sorting through trash in order to
give them some hands-on education about recycling,” Trezise said. “It’s
also a great visual for students on Library Mall to see how much trash
actually can be recycled or composted.”
By the end of the
afternoon, volunteers had collected about 72.5 pounds of garbage,
Styrofoam and coffee cups, as well as 97 pounds of recyclable
materials.
This translates into about 58 percent of
recyclable items retrieved from the trash. While this percentage may
seem high, it came as no surprise to CARE Coordinator Melissa Flores.
“This
has approximately been the outcome of our previous trash sorts … so
it’s not surprising to me that this happened again. I’m always hopeful
that the percentage of recyclables will be lower, but it has not
decreased yet,” Flores said.
Flores added that although the
university recently adopted a new contract for recycling, which she
sees as positive, it has not been publicized enough to make the desired
impact.
“Most of the public is totally misinformed as to what exactly is recycled on campus, and it’s not their fault,” she said.
Flores cited the posters listing recyclable items in dormitories as an example, since they are “outdated.”
Friday’s
event was originally planned for Oct. 24, but had to be canceled
because of the weather. Although not ideal, Trezise said that the delay
benefited the event in some ways.
“I think it actually
improved it a little bit. …We had a lot of time to sort out any issues
that the Union had with the event and any problems that the dorms had
with collecting trash, like confidentiality issues,” Trezise said.
Trezise
said that this event has been one of the group’s favorites in the past,
which definitely showed on Friday. Although it snowed, rained and
sleeted periodically throughout the afternoon, workers were not
discouraged.
“The weather is kind of terrible, it’s very
terrible, but I’m glad I can contribute to … make this campus greener,”
said UW freshman Hanning Bi.
UW senior Steven Pupp agreed that the event was worth bearing the cold.
“It’s cold, but it hasn’t diminished our spirits,” he said.
