Spring Break
Reduce, reuse, recycle, re-buy
A&M Recycling Center to teach the four R's, awareness during Aggies Recycle Day
By: Abid Mujtaba
Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: News
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The Texas A&M Recycling Center is spreading awareness about the environmentally-friendly alternatives to throwing aluminum cans away. Texas Aggies Recycle Day will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday in the Memorial Student Center to celebrate America Recycles Day.
Susan Russell, an intern at the Recycling Center and bio-environmental science major, has ensured that several local businesses and environmental organizations will be in attendance to answer questions and hand out information and giveaways to enable personal environmental responsibility.
Keep Brazos Beautiful, KBB, will be one of the environmental organizations participating in the event and stressing the four "R's": reduce, reuse, recycle and re-buy, with particular emphasis on the last. KBB wants people to buy not just recyclable articles but also recycled articles made from materials that have already been recycled.
The A&M recycling program was started in 1990 and, over the years, has expanded into the A&M Recycling Center, which collects and ships 50,000 lbs. of recyclable material per week collected from 135 building across campus. The facility is equipped to handle paper, aluminum cans and laser ink cartridges.
The facility is run by three full-time employees, an intern and five student workers. The center has started placing blue recycling cans shaped like aluminum cans outside of Kyle Field and popular tailgate party locations at home games. These allow fans to dispose of their empty cans in an environmentally-friendly manner while giving their support to the Aggie team.
Tom Marshall, who has been with the recycling center since 1993, has risen through the ranks from being a driver to being the recycling coorinator of the center.
"Our efforts largely depend upon the students," he said. "If they are enthusiastic about recycling, it ensures that the center keeps expanding."
Marshall emphasized the conscious effort that goes into recycling. For instance, this issue of The Battalion, thrown away in one of the garbage cans around campus, will end up in a landfill and possibly read by a team of researchers in 2060. On the other hand, if it is placed at one of the collection sites or dropped off at the recyclingcCenter, this paper will be recycled and used to create a new paper product and possibly save a tree.
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