Responses from Green Officers

So I’ve received 4 responses from other green officers:

• According to Steve from St. Catherine’s College their collection for paper recycling is in the kitchen, and student volunteers empty it.
• Michael from St. John’s said that his college gives a biodegradable bag to each student; the bedder empties the bag when it is full.
• Joan from Homerton said they have central paper recycling bins in their kitchen, and that it gets emptied into the college primary recycling bin twice a week where it is collected by the recycling company. She thinks the key is not to collect too much paper at one time in an open bin as it would present a fire hazard.
• Laurie from Trinity Hall said that each student has a separate bin to collect paper, and the bin is emptied once a week. She was able to convince the bedder that the students would be throwing the paper in the rubbish bin anyway, so there is no extra waste collected.
  

I believe there is something to be learned from each response. For one, having personal recycling bins in every room is feasible since it can be argued that there is not an overall increase of workload: students will be throwing paper away regardless if there is recycling. Thus, providing a recycling bin, gives students the option to recycle. Alternatively, a central recycling bin in each block could also work as examples taken from other college show that the fire hazard concern can be overcome. Now I need to set up the meeting with Saman, the bursar, housekeeping, and maintenance to present them with the three options for recycling paper; hopefully they will buy into the idea.