Phoebe Barr ‘19: Last spring, Nicholas Christos ‘20 noticed after school that a member of the cleaning crew was throwing a bag of recycling into the same dumpster used for the trash. This sparked a rumor among the student body that Episcopal does not actually recycle any of its waste. The strengths and weaknesses of Episcopal’s environmental awareness were examined while investigating this rumor.
Edwin Shafer, Coordinator of Sustainability, clarified the piece of truth behind the rumor. “Episcopal is not purposely sending recycling to the trash. What’s supposed to be happening is everything from the recycling containers around campus goes into the single-stream recycling dumpster which gets picked up three times a week. In reality, either because the recycling is contaminated, or sometimes just because it is easier, the cleaning staff is – not always, but I would say more often than not – putting both containers into the trash.”
“If you throw garbage in the recycling bin, that’s where mistakes are made,” said Operations Manager James Polk. “The cleaners don’t have the opportunity or the time to separate everything.”
When students throw an item meant for the trash into recycling, it makes it harder for the entire bin to be recycled. However, Shafer pointed out that this was not the whole reason for the problem. “I’ve also found out that from time to time the truck that comes to dump the trash dumps the recycling into the trash,” he said. “And one of the challenges of single-stream recycling is it’s not very cost-effective for people like waste management, and there’s not a lot of incentive.”
Students reacted negatively to news of this recycling problem. Caitlin Jorgensen ‘19 asserted that the school should “make more of an effort.” Polk said that “We pride ourselves on trying to recycle, our school’s all about that – we even recycle our computers,” but many students feel that Episcopal could do more. Emily Wingfield ‘18 explained, “There’s a big overuse of paper. Also, lights are always on in places where they don’t need to be on, classroom lights are left on a lot, the lights in the bathroom… stuff is left plugged in when it doesn’t need to be plugged in…. there’s a lot of electricity problems that they could deal with.” Brynn Doyle ‘18 said that Episcopal has been attempting to be more environmentally friendly. “A little, with the water bottle initiative that they have and the some days where they do no trays, but they could do better.”
To that end, many solutions are being proposed to rectify the situation. “I’m getting blue bags for the recycling containers so that it’s clearly identifiable, so it’ll be much easier to tell if it’s not being done right,” said Shafer. “I’ve already met once with the cleaning staff, and I’m going to meet with them again. We’re also going to look into doing more than just single-stream – actually separating cardboard and paper.” However, students may need to get more involved to change the situation in order to create a difference. “Participation is key,” explained Polk. “When there’s no participation, and everybody is just worried about their own daily routine, who will care about what happens with the recycling? Who will care when they walk by and throw garbage in the recycling bin?”
Shafer stressed that “It really helps if people will rinse out their yogurt container. They can put a dirty yogurt container in there and it’ll still go through, but it’s better if they can rinse it. Or if they dump out the last bit of the Coke in the Coke can and then recycle it. That really helps make the system work better. We’re starting up the sustainability committee, which went really well a couple years ago when a couple of seniors were involved, and got the bottle fillers, and reusable containers for people who take stuff out of the cafeteria. I would love to have students who are passionate about this.”
The problems with Episcopal’s recycling system, Polk said, have “been there for a while, but we put it on the back burner. People feel there are more important things to talk about. But if recycling becomes a daily routine, and students are involved, it’ll be a constant fixture. If you don’t get the community in on it, it tends to go away.”