Letter to the editor: SHU blue goes green

Our SHUcycle challenge is launching on March 1, highlighting student efforts on campus to use more refillable water bottles and recycle more plastic, paper, aluminum and glass, than ever before.

We currently recycle a half a ton of commingled materials per month, using a single-stream system.

“Single-stream” means that we put plastic, aluminum and glass containers in the same recyclable bins, along with paper, newspapers, cardboard and pizza boxes. No sorting is required. No trash (food or drink for example) is allowed in the recycling bin, just recyclable materials.

We want to decrease the number of plastic water bottles we use on campus and if we do buy drinks in plastic bottles, we want to make sure those bottles are recycled, not ending up in the trash. Over the past several weeks, students from SGA, the ecology club, Environmental Studies Permaculture Design class and Public Relations class have been working with John Signorello from Facilities Engineering to design the SHUcycle challenge and create the posters and flyers that will be displayed across campus and handed out.

THE CHALLENGE: during the month of March, show your commitment to a greener campus and show off your creative photo/ video talents, by highlighting your bright green acts of kindness. Post the photos and videos to Instagram and/or Twitter using the hashtag #SHUcycle. The first 50 students to post will win prizes!

“We want to eliminate the myth that we do not recycle on campus. We DO, and we want to increase the amount that we recycle,” said Carolina Gomez- Bello, Co-President of the Ecology Club.

We currently recycle 1,000 lbs of material per month (a half a ton), using the same system that the Village of South Orange and other communities use today.

If you have any questions, just tweet them #SHUcycle.