The realities of recycling

An overall 35 per cent recycling rate across the University as a whole is not a figure to boast about, but not one to be ashamed of either. A four percent recycling rate from campus residential kitchens between August 2011 and December 2011 is, on the other hand, just embarrassing. Why won’t students recycle?

Compared to the black bin, blue bin, green bin, black box and food box in my back garden at home, our two bin system – one for recyclable waste, one for landfill waste – could not be simpler. So why don’t we use it? The university is financially required to dispose of general waste, but no fee for recyclable goods; therefore it’s in our, Warwick Accommodations, and the planet’s best interests, to recycle.

An issue often raised when I challenge the recycling ‘offenders’ is the meagre size of the bins. My Rootes kitchen of 16 fills the moderately-sized general waste bin in one lunch time sitting. Rather than undertaking the oh-so-laborious task of emptying said bin, come dinner time the recycling bin is overflowing instead.

Perhaps if kitchen bins reflected the amount of people using them better, students might take more care to separate their waste accordingly. When asked why students don’t recycle, a first-year from Rootes said: ‘Students are lazy and want convenience. It’s difficult to manage a kitchen of 16 people; you can’t organise everyone.’

Indeed, one person disposing their general waste into the recycling bin undermines the efforts of everyone: recycling in halls must be a collective effort. She also added: ‘We aren’t provided with the facilities, separate bins outside for different materials might be better.’ Although this is an idea, if we can’t be bothered to divide our rubbish into two bins I seriously doubt the majority of Warwick students would separate it into multiple ones.

But I don’t have time to recycle, I hear you say. But we have to rinse stuff out, I hear you cry! Ok, ok, I hear you, take a breather; filling last night’s discarded wine bottle with water and then pouring it down the sink again is hardly a 4,500 word essay, is it?

What’s that? You don’t know what’s recyclable and what’s not? Read your bin; it’s glaring you in the face but you choose to ignore it. It’s the most inexcusable form of laziness, almost on par with those Call of Duty-addicted ‘lads’ who turn their boxers inside out as opposed to washing them. ‘But I, one person, cannot make a difference anyway’, you protest! Wrong: that’s equally as bad as the old ‘my one vote won’t make a difference’ we have all heard non-voters claim. When everyone believes their individual input cannot initiate a change, a collective and widespread pessimism is formed.

If every single person who believed they couldn’t transform a situation decided to vote, or recycle that empty wine bottle, then perhaps we wouldn’t have Cameron and Clegg raising our fees, or that embarrassing 4 per cent.

Did you know that glass is 100 per cent recyclable but will never decompose? Plastic is almost as harmful too, taking up to 500 years to decompose. If you think about it, that two-second rinse is a small price to pay to reduce the amount of recyclable waste filling landfills.

The trick is to transform recycling into a part of your daily routine rather than a chore your Mum insists you do. If you make rinsing and throwing last night’s cans into the correct bin an immediate reaction, like raising your arm in defence when a flying fist is coming your way, taking care of your environment will become something you do naturally and instinctively.

The People and Planet Green League 2011, which ranks universities according to how environmentally friendly they are, put Warwick at a disappointing 100th place: with 19.5 for policy but only 7 for performance (awarding us a grand total of 26.5/70). It is clear the problem lies with students’ unwillingness to fulfil their duty to their planet.

With Go Green Week spreading the environmental love across campus through films, speakers, workshops, bike rides, a fashion show, slam poetry, street theatre and many other exciting awareness-raisers, I hope students will be reminded it is our collective duty to care for our planet.