Kevin Garrity
Managing Editor
The Green Institute for Village Empowerment has implemented a new program intended to increase recycling in Founders Hall and ultimately the entire campus.
The new initiative will be directed at the faculty and staff who teach and work in Founders Hall.
“It’s important for students and the faculty to understand we only recycle something like 46 percent of what we could be,” said GIVE member Sierra Lingan. “In theory it could be 100 percent and so we are trying to take small steps to achieve that.”
“They go into offices in Founders unannounced and audit waste bins,” said Robert Beebe, associate director of facilities management. “They have already done that for the left side of Founders Hall and will continue throughout all buildings on campus,”
If a certain office gets audited for the same offense twice, Beebe then sends them a message as to what they have been doing wrong based on the recycling standards laid out by the GIVE group.
The hope is to show the faculty and staff that there are records being kept of recycling habits.
GIVE also saw that new tin trash and recycle bins were brought into Founders because the old blue ones were too movable and were not being utilized affectively, said GIVE President Amanda McCadden.
“We will be auditing the trash bins throughout the building to ensure that the faculty and staff participate in the recycling program,” McCadden said.
Each time the audit is completed, GIVE will leave a green slip to either acknowledge the office’s good recycling habits or note that trash was seen in the recycling bin or recyclable material was in the trash bin.
“We try to promote sustainability through education,” Lingan said. “We think this program will help the faculty see it’s important to a student group.”
“If everybody did their part and if everybody did exactly what was the letter of the law we could probably recycle 80 percent,” Beebe said. “Everything that is recyclable we recycle. We want to get that message out there that La Verne does recycle and recycling does work.”
“GIVE is trying to spread the word about sustainability and what people can do on a daily basis,” Lingan said.
“Working with GIVE has really given me new hope,” Beebe said.
Kevin Garrity can be reached at kevin.garrity@laverne.edu.
