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Chatter began to fill the bohemian living room, as did the scent of jasmine incense. The lights were dim as members of Community Unity sat cross-legged on the cream-colored carpeted floor, laughing amongst each other while President Kasey Vedder moved from the kitchen to carefully set down a platter of freshly made cookies.
Vice President Maggie Nieman began to clear her throat as the meeting began, smiling while she reached for her notepad. “Alright guys, we have a lot to go over,” Nieman says in a clear voice before listing off planned objectives for the rest of the semester.
After considering the turnout for the most recent Turnbull Canyon cleanup and making future plans for a beach cleanup, the biggest issue they all agree upon with murmurs of agreement and soft head nods is student recycling.
“Recycling on campus just doesn’t really happen,” says junior and active member Maeve Bell. “I know in Harris they have recycling bins but I rarely see them anywhere else on campus.”
While Whittier College does in fact have recycling bins they are placed only in specific areas such as in front of Hoover Hall or Wardman Library, an effort the Sustainability club has been working on.
According to sustainabilty.whittier.domains, “We have upgraded some of our general big blue recycling bins into bins that come in a variety of designs. Some of these bins have holes and other shapes that are specific to what recyclable item needs to go in that bin. These designs encourage students to consciously acknowledge that it is a recycling bin, leading to a rise in recycling practices.” The Sustainability Club also plans to increase the number of recycling bins on campus.
According to truth-out.org, “The average American is responsible for 4.4 pounds of trash a day, or 1,606 pounds a year. The average family of four in the US produces 6,351 pounds of trash each year.”
“People aren’t aware of how much they waste. I’m guilty of that myself sometimes,” says Junior Laura Roston. “It’s really different in San Franscisco, we keep compost and trash seperate.”
The Sustainability Club has plans to include battery recycling for the next year. “We’re going to have boxes around campus, mostly the SLC and library, that will be for battery collecting and those will be taken to IT because they recycle electronic [and] battery waste every semester,” says Vice President Tiffany Livoti.
Community Unity has worked on several waste removal cleanups in various locations starting with Turnbull Canyon hiking trails and Seal Beach. While these events have been highly successful, the club has bigger goals which include increasing recycling efforts on campus.
“We want to focus on Whittier next. This is such a big project and we want to make sure we give it all we got,” Nieman says. “We have to wait for next year for things to really pick up, but this is something we’ve been wanting to do.”
For just having been established this year, Community Unity has several goals but starting as a new club has had its drawbacks. “A lot of perople are interested, but meeting times don’t work out,” Nieman says. “It really only takes one person to make a difference but imagine how much of an impact we could make if everyone was included.”
Whittier College does have a recycling program that was created in 2008 started by environmental studies major Amber Orozco ’13. According to whittier.edu “recycling bins are located in every campus building, and are emptied and sorted by student workers.” Whittier College takes pride in its “student-led recycling program” which is featured on the “Sustainabilty” page at whittier.edu, however when clicking the link the page is not found.
While Whittier College has clubs and groups devoted to recycling there is still much work to be done. If you are interested in helping the environment check out the Sustainability Club and Community Unity to help keep our campus clean!
