Recyclemania Reduction Rant
March 16th, 2009 by Jonathan
It’s mid-March, which means it’s time for the ultimate collegiate competition. No, not the NCAA Tournament, RecycleMania!
That also means it’s time for my annual RecycleMania rant! The college recycling competition, which began 2001 under the auspices of the National Recycling Coalition, is generally a very positive undertaking. But, the “targeted materials” category of “food service organics” leaves much to be desired.
In that category, the school that uses the most food waste and compostable plates/cups wins. Sure, that college is segregating and composting that waste, which is great. Yet wouldn’t the better message be to try to reduce the amount of food being tossed, whether it’s into the trash or a compost bin?
My cynical side thinks this setup exists because there’s money to be made hauling off materials, recyclable or otherwise. But waste haulers don’t benefit when folks reduce their waste. For institutional customers like colleges, though, there’s money (and maybe a planet) to be saved.
My practical side thinks the ‘most compost wins’ thing happens because it’s intuitive to count how much of something there is, not how little exists. Plus, I’m sure the organizers want to reward students for segregating their compostable waste from the rest of the trash. But I think it’s time to shoot higher, especially at progressive places like colleges and universities.
RecycleMania does have a waste minimization category, but just for general trash. Why not extend that idea to food waste, er…food service organics?
Stumble it! | Posted in General, Composting, College |
Jon,
Some might call you a cynic, but I sure wouldn’t. I tend to be far more cynical about higher education. My sense is that most colleges and universities–while they have various personnel and students with differing goals and interests–as institutions, tend to focus on the image that they project. Afterall, these things are businesses (and not, I would argue, as “progressive” as they would have us believe). At the end of the day, I feel as though it’s the students putting pressure on their administration to make changes more than it’s the other way around. So long as there’s student support for a cause, and the administration can see a way to weave it into their admissions materials, then it’s going to be theirs’ with gusto.
As far as recycling is concerned, I’ve noticed that many people can only imagine it as a one-’R’ operation; the act of reducing and reusing materials seems less like ‘recycling’ to many people than the relocation of waste into a green bin of some sort. Afterall, melting thousands of plastic water bottles back into more plastic water bottles has the effect of giving you the warm-fuzzies, without threatening your current lifestyle. Once you start to talk about not drinking bottled water at all, or eating less food, then you start to challenge people’s ‘do what I feel like’ attitude, which is messy, and not likely to make it into the admissions packets (notwithstanding the threat implied by curbing consumption to those companies holding student services contracts).
Peace and Love,
Dan
People changing their behavior?!?
Solid points, Dan.
To be fair I do think schools are reducing more through traylessness…Reusing, maybe a little through those coffee mugs and water bottles. But we have a long way to go!
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough.
Yes, in an ideal world we’d all use less and there’s be little recycling. We’re not there yet. Let organizations get a benefit by increasing recycling & composting. Some years down the road, when recycling is as common as trash cans, then push for the next step. But if all one does is critize an effort for not being perfect, then who’s going to make the effort at all?
I *am* interested in a way to measure what isn’t used. As you say, it’s hard to measure what isn’t there and measuring is natural in a competition. Measuring recycling piles is easy so what we need is an equally easy to measure “not used” piles. Ideas, class?
I don’t have a problem with a person or an organization getting a specific, individual benefit - such a profit - from doing a right thing. Profit motivates people and companies, let’s harness it to achieve our goals rather than deride someone for benefiting from doing a right thing.
My personal rant: I wish my municipal recycling can were as large as my municipal garbage can! Even better, that the two switched sizes. We recycle far more than we throw out. (Now I wonder, is someone going to dump on me for having so much to recycle?)
Harry, who reduces, reuses, and recycles.
Harry, you make some great points. So true about the gargantuan trash cans and tiny recycling bins.
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough.” I like this expression, but without the ‘enough.’ That connotes laziness to me.
I don’t think we should let organizations rest on their laurels. There’s too much at stake and plenty of room for improvement. So I’ll compliment groups for each positive step, but encourage/poke/prod them to waste less food. Someone has to push the envelope a bit…
Like I said, Recyclemania is generally a positive thing. I just wish they’d improve that one category. And maybe with your help in figuring out how to measure what’s not used, they will.