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Environmental efforts lacking at ULV

Students often bypass these recycling bins located inside the Student Center, throwing waste into the garbage rather than the bins. With more than 73 percent of waste in landfills being paper and paper products, freshman Tracy MacArthur takes the extra effort to recycle last week's Campus Times. / photo by Rosie Sinapi
Students often bypass these recycling bins located inside the Student Center, throwing waste into the garbage rather than the bins. With more than 73 percent of waste in landfills being paper and paper products, freshman Tracy MacArthur takes the extra effort to recycle last week’s Campus Times. / photo by Rosie Sinapi

by Julie Eklund
Staff Writer

Monday is Earth Day and all across the nation people are celebrating our planet. With this comes renewed desires to conserve water and energy; to reduce, reuse and recycle.

On a smaller scale, the event is being celebrated today at the University of La Verne with an Earth Day fair comprised of booths set up by clubs and organizations on campus, a band and lunch in the University Mall.
Despite efforts to promote Earth Day, only three clubs participated in the fair, although 20 participation forms were sent out to various groups on campus.

Earth Day committee chair for the Associated Students Federation (ASF) Forum, sophomore Jennifer Pashone, believes the low response level indicates that “the students just don’t really care about their environment.”

She went on to say, “Maybe it’s end-of-year burnout, but Earth Day is a national thing and La Verne should be involved.”

ULV does have a year-round recycling program, however, it is under no one’s jurisdiction.

Recycling bins for cans, glass, plastic and paper are located in various locations throughout the campus and are emptied each week by Housekeeping. The recyclables are gathered in a central place, where the gardening crew takes care of them.

Housekeeping Manager Joanne Gonzalez reports problems with regular trash being disposed of in the recycling bins, and it seems obvious from the frequent low content levels in the recycling bins that recyclable materials are often thrown away into general trash cans on campus.

Dr. Robert Neher, chair of the Natural Sciences Division, said the recycling program at ULV has “gone through many permutations.”

According to Dr. Neher, the program was primarily sponsored by the Biology Department and was very active in the 1970s, then in the ‘80s the focus changed, and the program was run more by city organizations. An environmental club was fairly active on campus for a few years, but due to lack of interest the organization ended last year.

Neher said there is “a general lack in time commitment. Most people don’t want to take the time to do it.”

Julie Eklund
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