Volume CXXXIII, Number 9 November 9, 2001 f

Following Bowdoin's trash trail
JESS FARMER
STAFF WRITER

What could motivate four otherwise sane individuals to spend two and a half hours on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon digging through sixteen bags of garbage? A desire to help Bowdoin reach its goal of recycling 30% of its waste stream. An environmental audit conducted on campus last year found that this great institution recycled a mere 15% of its waste stream. This figure looks even more pathetic when compared with the 60% that Middlebury and Bates recycle annually.

Members of Sustainable Bowdoin's Trash Audit Team sort through trash on Tuesday afternoon from various College buildings. (Nicole Stiffle, Bowdoin Orient)

As a result of the audit, the college hired Keisha Payson as its sustainability coordinator to help the school reduce its environmental impact. Many students were interested in helping Keisha and as a result, Sustainable Bowdoin was born. The group has the lofty goals of reducing the college's energy consumption and paper use, writing an environmental statement to be published in the handbook, increasing recycling, and beginning a composting project among others.

The trash audit was intended to get students, faculty, and staff to think about the waste the college generates-all of which goes to the Brunswick landfill, which will be full by 2012-and highlight areas where the college needs to improve.

The garbage for the audit came from four buildings: Cram Alumni House, Baxter House, Hubbard Hall, and H&L. No dorm trash was to be used. However, there was a mix-up with facilities management and four bags of intimidating Baxter House garbage arrived. The trash was weighed and then sorted into six categories: high-grade paper, newspaper, returnables, #2 plastic (all plastic is recyclable, but only #2 is collected at Bowdoin), cardboard, and trash. After they were sorted, the bags were weighed once more.

Digging through the first few bags, a sense of near euphoria swept the group. There was hardly a returnable can in sight. Cram Alumni trash consisted mostly of food waste, lots of styrofoam plates and napkins, some Dominos boxes, and plastic utensils. Sustainable Bowdoin encourages the use of non-disposable utensils, plates, and cups whenever possible and gently reminds the folks at Cram Alumni House that styrofoam never decomposes.

Digging with newfound confidence into the Baxter bags, the group was pleasantly surprised to find not one recyclable item. The bad news is that the trash was mostly paper towels-oh yeah and beer cups. Hand dryers would be more sanitary and reduce solid waste. But still, nice job Baxter.

The euphoria did not last however. As the group plunged into the first bag from Hubbard Hall, the mood quickly hit its nadir. Brightly colored pieces of high-grade paper burst from the bag along with books (yes, whole books!), envelopes corrugated cardboard, and returnable bottles and cans hidden deep within Polar lunch bags. All of these items are recyclable! The trash consisted of mostly paperboard (which is recyclable, but not in Brunswick) and much styrofoam. (We are trying to get a styrofoam recycling plan to Bowdoin but tragically it currently must be put on hold). Hubbard was a pretty grim scene, especially since there are numerous recycle bins in that building.

As the wind picked up, the group finished off with Hawthorne Longfellow Library. The biggest recyclable that was thrown away was paper, but much less than the group had originally feared. There were also many little plastic envelope windows that few people know are actually recycleable along with high-grade paper.

The official results of the audit are below. The percentages are calculated by weight and include materials which were contaminated by contact with garbage, but were originally recyclable. Rounding of figures resulted in some non-100% totals).

Cram Alumni House:
High-grade paper 2%
Newspaper 2%
Returnables 6%
#2 Plastic 0%
Cardboard 0%
Non-recyclables (garbage) 90%

Baxter House:
Non-recyclables (garbage) 100%

Hawthorne-Longfellow:
High-grade paper 19%
Newspaper 6%
Returnables 6%
#2 Plastic 0%
Cardboard 0%
Non-recyclables (garbage) 70%

Hubbard Hall:
High-grade paper 39%
Newspaper 4%
Returnables 3%
#2 Plastic 0%
Cardboard 1%
Non-recyclables (garbage) 52%

So why recycle? It saves trees, but perhaps more importantly, recycling saves energy. For example, it takes 96% less energy to recycle an aluminum can than it does to make one out of virgin ore. Saving energy means saving coal and oil, which is good news from both an environmental and a national security standpoint: the latter because it would make us less reliant on foreign oil. The amount of energy the US saves from recycling each year could run the country for 4 months.

So break out your Nalgenes, bring your own mug to dinner, get one of those super cool lunch bags (only $4 and you can use polar points), and put your cans, newspapers, and flyers in the clearly marked bins.