Trustees review recycling standards
By Allison Roche
News Writer
The fate of 20 ounce bottles of pop across Saint Mary's campus will be determined by the Board of Trustees the next time they meet on April 19 and 20.
The board will then decide whether to give final approval to the Student Environmental Action Coalition's proposal for administrative financing of campus-wide glass and plastic recycling.
SEAC president, Teresa Lorenz, said the proposal is a response to requests from the student body.
"Students and faculty would approach us and ask why the College didn't provide plastic and glass recycling, and what was the SEAC doing about it. When the College began switching vending machines from aluminum to plastic, people really began to question the aluminum recycling," Lorenz said.
The SEAC's proposal, originally written in April 2000, garnered support from the BOG in October 2000 and was most recently approved by the Faculty Assembly.
According to Susan Dampeer, assistant to College president Marilou Eldred, administrators and faculty on the College Budget Committee are currently reviewing the proposal in order to make a recommendation to the Administrative Council. The Administrative Council, composed of Eldred and the College's vice presidents, will then make their recommendation to the Board of Trustees.
Due to support the proposal has already received from administration, Lorenz said she is optimistic about the final approval.
"We really don't anticipate the request to be turned down," she said.
Although the administration supports the idea of glass and plastic recycling, budget constraints might prevent the SEAC proposal from being implemented. Saint Mary's currently spends $20,000 annually for aluminum, paper and cardboard recycling. The additional cost of recycling glass and plastic would be about $30,000.
"There are requests for funds from every department in the College. This year alone there were requests totaling $1,684,000 and funds available of approximately $450,000," Dampeer said.
The slow approval process has not deterred the SEAC, which has begun some recycling efforts on its own. One of the members of the group, Emily Miller, organized about 12 other members to place boxes for plastic and glass recyclables in their residence halls. The volunteers use a College truck to bring the boxes' contents to a recycling center in South Bend.
No figures are available for how much the SEAC has recycled so far, but Lorenz said it is "a lot." However, due to the limited number of volunteers, not every building on campus can be covered.
"Last year Dr. Watt in the biology department took the recyclables over to the Notre Dame recycling dumpster at married student housing. She got into trouble from Notre Dame because their dumpsters were filling up every week from the recyclables we would bring over. And then, too, after a point she would have to make three or four trips over there," Lorenz said.
If the Board of Trustees gives the SEAC their approval in April, the new recycling program could start immediately.
All News Stories for Friday, March 1, 2002
