Recycling today is one of the iconic words for the green movement. So then how is it done at Yuba College and is it done well enough? Librarian Elena Heilman noticed that students were throwing garbage in the recycling bins and recyclables in the garbage bins. “I don’t have much to say other than I wish that people recycled more” said Heilman remarking on the issue. This prompted a look into exactly how Yuba College deals with recycling. The new nursing building on campus has an idealized recycling bin setup labeling all bins so that exactly the right type of recyclables are put into them. However this is the only setup of its kind on campus and the rest of the place has to make due with blue toters for recyclables. These are mostly filled with paper although some bottles and cans are included. A possible problem is that any non-recyclable trash can be put into these containers and it will not be sorted out by anyone on maintenance. Bill Granger who works with Randy Joslin the head of maintenance explained the process and the system involved in handling waste at Yuba College. To begin with the reason the new nursing building is so well equipped to recycle is because as part of the new construction it is entitled to new green facilities, while the budget is insufficient to spread those facilities to the rest of the school. In addressing the problem of waste thrown in with the recyclable material Granger said there is neither enough personnel or time to sort out the trash but when it is sent to Recology it is all sorted into its proper categories. However Yuba College does try to do what it can on campus reserving two white dumpsters for cardboard. Also there is considerable electronic waste Granger said which is sent to “Computers for Classrooms” in Chico. All this is overseen by the state agency which calculates how much waste there should be. In calculating the ratio of recyclable to non-recyclable waste the agency takes the number of employees and students and estimates how much waste of each kind they should be producing. The budget for maintenance is determined by the Administration whose budget is determined by the state. An annual report is due on September 1st where all the Yuba College waste is calculated. This year the report was done by Granger who multiplied the number of dumpsters times the weight they produce in a week times the number of weeks in a year. While all this does not necessarily mean that recycling is being done perfectly at Yuba College it does show that an intricate and complex process is at work trying to address the issue.
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