Welcome to the UGA Office of Sustainability (UGA OoS) Blogspot, a blog managed and written by students, faculty and staff who are engaged in sustainability across the university. Together we are working to create a model for healthy living on campus and beyond, meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Our goal is a campus that functions as a living laboratory where sustainability is researched, taught, practiced and constantly refined; a place were students faculty and staff enhance the quality of life in their communities both physical and scholarly.

The goal of the blog is to discover and promote sustainability projects, events and programs across campus, sharing our successes and struggles. We hope this site will promote productive conversations that will help lead us to a sustainable future. Please join us, share you comments, and let’s build a sustainable campus together.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

The Next Equal Rights Movement

I believe in equal rights whether it is about voting, sitting on a bus, or anything else.  So why dont we have equal rights to how we manage our waste?  If you walked into the MLC and had a recyclable item(i.e. plastic bottle or newspaper) you have 3 to 4 times as many chances to throw it away in a trash bin then any other recycling bin.  This fact has encouraged the Office of Sustainability to investigate smarter ways for buildings to position and manage waste and recycling receptacles.

My project's goal is to reduce the amount of recyclables thrown away in the TATE student center and the Miller Learning Center.  So far everything has been going well, i have completed mapping out all of the trash, and recycling bins throughout the MLC and have started to formalize a plan of attack for how i want to rearrange the bins so that more people will recycle.  Next week i hope to start mapping out the TATE center and evaluate the best strategies for the two buildings.

Will Grant, Blog Author
Office of Sustainability Intern
My research in the MLC has found that overall approximately 30% of all trash bins contained paper recyclables and 32% of trash bins contained plastic or metal recyclables.  I have also found that the use of different sized and shaped bins has contributed to the confusion on where people are supposed to recycle at.  I also believe the lack of equal acess to trash and recycling is affecting the amount of recyclables thrown away. Please let me know what you think and any suggestions you may have.
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1 comment:

  1. morrakaMarch 12, 2011 at 5:54 AM

    Yes! Everywhere there is a trash can, there should be a recycling container.

    RECYCLE AWAY specializes in containers for Universities. www.recycleaway.com

    ReplyDelete

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