by Aubrey Montoya
Daily Lobo
Kyrsten Sanderson, the Campus Greens' co-chair, said a recycling drive in the dorms gave her hope.
"There's a system that exists, but no one really utilizes it," she said. "A lot of people who are involved in the Greens live in the dormitories and are fed up with seeing all this waste go to the regular Dumpster."
According to Sanderson, the Campus Greens have had difficulties making recycling a permanent feature in the dorms, mostly because of a lack of resources. The recycling drive this week was a temporary solution the group hopes to make permanent.
There were no recycling bins in the dorms, but the Greens placed two at every dorm.
She said group members are lobbying to get the bins permanently placed in dorms until the end of the semester.
Linda McCormick, resource conservation manager for UNM, said she hopes to put two recycling bins behind the tennis courts on campus. She has been working to place the bins before the fall semester.
"Having bins placed in the center where everyone can access them rather than servicing each dormitory is a pretty good solution, since we don't have a large staff, and we lack money," McCormick said.
She said the center is trying to find a system that will work for the dorms.
The drive provided each dorm with one set of recycling bins, one for newspaper and the other for plastic.
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"I think recycling should be more widespread," said Kirby Kleeberg, a dorm resident. "Accessibility is just horrible. I'm too lazy to walk down from my dorm to recycling, so I just throw it away."
Sanderson said the Residence Hall Association has been supportive of the College Greens' fight for better recycling on campus.
"They had expressed it was something they wanted to do for a long time," she said.
Sanderson also said if a solution is reached for sanitary, structured and efficient recycling, the administration would be more willing to help.
"I think if the administration sees that, yes, the RAs support it and the students are really going to support it and keep it organized and clean, I think that they'll be more willing to keep it permanently," Sanderson said. "It's just important to really value our resources and reuse them if we can."
Student Brian McClelland said universities should participate in recycling.
"We need to help conserve, help the Earth out a little bit, because we're obviously not helping out very much," he said.
