Thanks to one of two environmental bills passed by the Government of the Student Body on Nov. 12, it will become easier for Iowa State students to deposit their aluminum cans and plastic bottles into recycling bins instead of garbage cans.

Titled “Campus Recycling At Last,” the bill requested $702.60 from GSB for help in funding the set of 12 new recycling bins for eight buildings around campus. The bill was written by Dave Johnson, a sophomore in industrial engineering and Renee Fosselman, a junior in speech communication.

Johnson is the Richardson Court Association environmental chairman, and Fosselman is RCA president and adviser to the RCA environmental committee.

GSB approved funding in conjunction with RCA’s environmental committee for 12 new recycling bins to be placed at prominent spots on campus. The bins will be set up and ready to receive both aluminum and plastics on Dec. 1.

Like the recycling on ISU dorm floors, the contents of the bins will be picked up by Fresh Aire Delivery.

The money received from the five-cent deposits will go to funding more extensive environmental programs, such as recycling Iowa State Dailies.

“Five cents per can is a lot of money,” said Wade Demmer, RCA, a sophomore in electrical engineering and one of the sponsors of the bill. “If we collect that money and reinvest it into non-profit recycling, we will be able to establish a large- scale recycling program on campus.”

Fosselman said this program will serve as a springboard for other environmental programs in the future.

“Not only will the pop cans be recycled, but the money collected from the project will be used to sponsor future recycling and environmental programs such as recycling the ISU Dailies,” Fosselman said.

“However, the success of the programs will be determined by the number of students who are responsible and use the bins. Hopefully, it will also spark other environmental groups to take an active roll in similar programs or simply educating the public about environmental issues,” she said.

The RCA environmental committee went to GSB because its $300 was not a sufficient amount to cover the costs of the new bins. According to the bill, RCA environmental committee “has worked since February to organize a massive recycling effort for students.”

Members of the committee were elated the bill passed, although they did not express surprise.

“GSB is very good about recognizing issues that affect the entire student body, and this definitely affects the entire student body,” Johnson said.

Fosselman agreed with Johnson about increased levels of environmental awareness on campus.

“Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important to most people,” Fosselman said. “The bill was well written and was for a great cause. I would have been surprised if it hadn’t passed.”

Fosselman said members of the committee worked on the details of the bill for about one and a half hours, to insure GSB senators would have a good understanding of its goals and intentions.

The bill was also sponsored by Matt Craft, RCA, and a sophomore in political science.

“I think that if you look around campus there is very little recycling that goes on,” Craft said. “I went with other members of GSB to Boulder for the Big 12 Student Government Conference, and Colorado University has a tremendous recycling program. They have bins everywhere for recycling.”

The RCA environmental committee called more than 40 buildings on campus to ask if those buildings had or wanted recycling bins. Only eight buildings wanted the bins.

He said the majority of the buildings’ officials turned him down “largely for the reason that they had other recycling [means] for the building already.”

Johnson said some student organizations on campus, including various fraternities and sororities, have set up recycling programs in some campus buildings. He said his committee choose not to compete with those groups by putting the new bins in the buildings.

Johnson said another unfortunate impression some of the buildings’ officials may have had about the bins is that they would be dirty or unsanitary.

“They either rejected [the bins] because they had other recycling or fear that there would be contamination problems,” Johnson said.

There is still considerable debate on whether ISU is environmentally conscious.

“I think that if you ask students, they will say yes,” Craft said. “Most of ISU students, faculty, and staff care about the environment, but there has been only a limited amount of recycling that goes on here.

“The more convenient it is to recycle the more participation there will be. By putting these bins in place, I believe it will be much more convenient [to recycle] for everyone,” he said.

The bins will be placed at Engineering Annex, McKay-LeBaron Hall, Pearson Hall, Gilman Hall, Heady Hall, the Hub and the Maple-Willow-Larch Commons.