Several groups throughout the university have taken an active role in recycling in order to improve environmental awareness at Iowa State.

Because the City of Ames does not have any specific environmental ordinances, ISU has been left to its own recycling standards.

Mike Pitula, 1997-98 Inter-Residence Hall Association vice president of environmental affairs, said while ISU has various recycling programs in effect, a more assertive stance on the issue needs to be taken.

Richardson Court Association, the only residence hall association to have any type of environmental committee, has taken steps to improve campus recycling, but the university as a whole has not been as aggressive.

David Johnson, 1997-98 Richardson Court Association’s environmental committee chair, organized a campuswide recycling project and various other events throughout RCA in order to raise awareness and improve the environmental reputation of ISU.

Johnson was budgeted $500 from the RCA Assembly for recycling projects and environmental issues. He and his committee, which consists of seven RCA vice presidents and various other members, use this budget to finance various recycling efforts.

“These students are stepping up and actually doing something,” Johnson said.

Ryan Glanzer, 1997-98 GSB Chief of Staff, said while GSB has no specific recycling committee, the human relations committee has organized various events, such as leaf raking, around campus and the community.

“I think recycling itself should be handled more on a smaller residential scale,” Glanzer said. “Perhaps GSB could put out something like that, but I think it would be very hard to coordinate something of that magnitude on the campuswide level.”

Johnson agreed with Glanzer, adding that he would not like to see GSB take over recycling because it implies that it is only for students and not an issue that needs to be addressed by the whole university.

As part of a conscious effort to improve campuswide recycling, Johnson, in collaboration with various GSB senators, presented a bill to the GSB senate titled “Campus Recycling at Last” during the fall semester, which provided money to purchase eight receptacles, padlocks, proper labeling and Fresh Aire Delivery Service to pick up the materials.

The senate allocated the full $702.60 requested, and the bill passed with very strong support, Johnson said.

IRHA is the only other residence group who has some type of environmental involvement. Pitula said he has not done a lot this year in his position as vice president of environmental affairs because he is trying to get a feel for the new position.

While ISU does not have a central recycling committee, at one time an organization called the ISU Recycling Committee was active.

The organization consisted of volunteers representing Facilities Planning and Management, Central Stores and the Iowa State Daily, and was not given a budget.

The group currently is defunct, but Gloria Erickson, program assistant in facilities planning and management, remains as a contact person and is working on re-establishing the committee along with agreements for funding.

“Originally the committee was formed to develop a sustainable campuswide recycling program, such as the white-paper program,” Erickson said.

Erickson remains active in the environmental arena. She is currently working with the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society on designing and constructing a hydraulic lift to use in conjunction with the white paper recycling program.

She has also been assisting the Student Environmental Council with its proposal to start newspaper recycling on campus.

Part of the problem at ISU is that Ames does not have any recycling mandates in place, Johnson said.

“Ames has a very unique system in this country that they take the trash and pull out a lot of the recyclables at the recycling center and then take the remaining trash and burn it for energy, so very little is actually lost in the system,” Johnson said. However, it is more effective to reuse something rather than burn it, he said.

The plant is “a good option opposed to a landfill, but there is more that can be done,” Erickson said. Ames meets federal and state mandates by burning its trash instead of throwing it into a landfill, Erickson said.

Erickson, Johnson and Pitula all spoke about the importance of beginning a newspaper recycling program on campus. With over 14,000 Dailys being printed every day during the school year, the amount of newspaper refuse is enormous.

The Student Environmental Council is working on a proposal to implement a program to recycle the papers after they are collected. There is no place in Ames or the surrounding vicinity that will recycle the newspaper.

The collected material would sit in a warehouse, which would do nothing to help the environment, Erickson said. The SEC is currently looking into a facility that would recycle all of the collected papers. Until a facility is found, the project is on hold.