Why shouldn’t student’s be given a vote on something that, for the majority (though certainly not all), their parents would pay?

I don’t really trust EcoAction after they promised to hook everyone up with better recycling bins around campus, as well as personal bins, and never delivered.

will, as a board member of ecoaction i can tell you that it’s not really under ecoaction’s jurisdiction to provide recycling bins for individuals/campus. (first of all, we don’t even have the budget to do that. secondly, we don’t have the ability to implement something like that)

though we have been working with facilities, which is in charge of providing recycling bins, and providing them recommendations to improve recycling on campus. again, since we are working with faculty/administration it’s pretty hard to get anything real done

but i don’t remember ecoaction promising to give students personal recycling bins…

How about the university can set up an account people can contribute to if they want to make Georgetown greener. Those who want to contribute can, and those who don’t don’t have to. Much better than a university-wide mandate.

If my memory serves me correctly (and it does), EcoAction has never offered to give away free personal recycling bins. And as Kristin notes, we’ve been harassing the administration to improve recycling for years. Recently our work has shown up in the purchase of new energy-efficient recycling trucks, better recycling collection services (which is behind the scenes, so most students would never notice), and even in some new recycling bins popping up (those blue ones in Red Square and outside Leavey). In a somewhat related note, we did help coordinate the distribution of hundreds of free nalgenes earlier this year…

Green fees have proven to be effective at tons of campuses across the country. Obviously there’s tons that can be done here in terms of energy efficiency (anybody notice how the heating/cooling in Walsh just doesn’t work?), improvements in recycling, and most importantly, the purchase of renewable energy. All of this can be accomplished through a green fee and a capable sustainability coordinator to decide on which policies to enact when. Trouble is, since when has a Georgetown administrator does his/her job well?

[crickets]

Uggh, the blue bins. Honestly if you want to improve recycling, the thing to do is standardize the appearance of all the recycling bins. I can think of at least 6 different styles of the top of my head (in my common room, in my dorm hallway, in my dorm trashroom, those stone bins throughout campus, in Lauinger, and now these blue bins). Bins should be simple to identify, and consistent across campus. If I want to recycle a soda bottle, I should be able to glance around the room and know where the nearest plastic-receptacle is. And certainly every recycling bin needs to have a trashcan near it, otherwise you’re giving people every incentive to dump trash into recycling bins.

Uniform bins is a great idea. i can never find the right bin.

there are tons of things in the tuition that not everyone agrees with (ex: $1m lobbying for a boat house?) but we come together as a community and support initiatives that are supposed to enrich our community and global neighborhood. If we approached tuition as line by line, we would have a lot less resources, period. so we get ripped off, definitely, but we also get a lot. How come social justice/green/diversity initiatives are always a luxury cost, while the prizes of the privileged are institutionalized and unquestioned?

besides, everyone is doing it http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/12/green-fees-college-studen_n_201978.html

Thank you Anonymous! That’s EXACTLY the policy EcoAction has been pushing the University to adopt. Uniform, comprehensive – meaning metal, glass, plastic, and paper – bins placed next to trash cans.

I think that’s the direction they’re headed now, they’re just not willing to spend the money to replace every waste disposal bin with new units at once. But the problem with doing it in phases is that you inevitably get different looking recycling bins, which just confuse people. They should just suck it up and spend – recycling is a very visible and inexpensive way for a University to act sustainably.

Will, I would like to reiterate Kristin’s point. We, as a club, did not promise individual recycling bins because we are not in charge of campus facilities or the money allocation for such programs; we have spoken about our wishes for standardization of bins and an increase in recycling resources, but all we are able to do is express our voice to the administration–it is up to them to follow through.

Moreover, I agree with Brian’s point that such issues of social good should not be just seen as a “luxury.” Is not such a mission of social justice part of the mission of Georgetown?

Also, I would strongly agree on the boathouse point, too. In the Sustainability Endowment Institute’s report card on universities, Georgetown received an F on endowment transparency. This is something that can use a lot of improvement. Thinking about how I would relate to the University as an alumnus a few years down the road, I would want to know what my money is funding.

Hey, EcoAction, I guess I wasn’t clear. I meant that when I reported a story on EcoAction a year or two ago, the person I talked to said you guys were going to start selling recycling bins. I never saw that come to fruition.

“Hook up” is pretty vague, though, and it does sound like I meant they would be given away. Sorry about that.

No problem—sorry about the confusion!