Univ. should uphold recycling

According to some students who work on campus, the university does not recycle. Many blue recycling bins are apparently for show and their contents are discarded with trash. Though students and university officials relay two different sides of the story, the fact that our recycling is questioned in the first place should be investigated. 

The students who claim that the university does not recycle say that university facilities throw out many recyclable items because they are contaminated. Many students are suspicious of the trash cans dispersed around campus with two separate units for recycling and trash, yet it seems that all the disposed material leads to the same pile. There is no clear-cut way to prove that the university recycles every item that it is supposed to because of contamination, though there should be more initiative to ensure that as many items are recycled a possible.

Recycling is as simple as separating waste. People discard more recyclable materials than they think—consider all the paper and plastic we use on the daily basis, multiplied by the tens of thousands of people who populate the campus. That’s a lot of material gone to waste. The university has made efforts to show that it values environmentally friendly initiatives, so it makes little sense as to why laziness takes priority over doing the right thing. 

Moreover, the city of Newark strategized to encourage recycling as of last year by incorporating more receptacles throughout Main Street and the city. The least the university could do is appreciate and follow the goals set forth by the city. If the university can unleash projects like developing solar panels at the Delaware Field House for a not-so-modest $90 thousand, then why can’t it make more of an effort to guarantee a green campus?