12 The Voice, For Students, By Students -M- ^ ^ ^ ^ November 16, 2011 | www.fsuvoice.com
Redefining Bronco pride by going green
m
FSU students throw away recycable items despite the appropriate bins being avalible.
story and photo By DanM Pratw
Voice Staff Writer
“We’re going in the wrong direction!”
That’s how H. Jay Blauser, facilities proj
ect manager and sustainability coordinator,
described the student body’s efforts regard
ing recycling. 62 tons were recycled by FSU
in fiscal year 2010, but in fiscal year 2011,
that number dropped to 58 tons. Mr. Blauser,
stated the “FSU Pitch In!” movement has
“picked up, but still has room for improve
ment.”
Mr. Blauser says the quantity of green
wheeled recycling containers throughout
campus has grown to 63 and will continue to
increase with necessity, just as muhi-can lo
cations like those near the Butler and Taylor
buildings have. They weren’t planned target
areas, the staff simply saw an increase in re
cycling activity and placed additional cans to
accommodate.
Each can is labeled with a complete list of
acceptable single stream items, which can
also be found on the FSU Sustainability Of
fice’s website where they promote the ‘FSU
Pitch In!’ initiative. They also provide recy
cling drums donated fi-om Coca-Cola, seen
in the Capel Arena, in addition to the green
cardboard and single stream dumpsters be
hind the Student Center and one in Lot P, near
the Facilities warehouses.
Despite all these resources, students con
tinue to ignore their duty as Broncos and
fling their waste, often times recyclable, all
across campus. Perhaps the saddest displays 1
witnessed included food wrappers just a few
steps away from trash cans. It’s bad enough
that students blatantly disregard the recycling
cans, but to lack the decency to take three
steps and ensure garbage enters a trash recep
tacle provides irrevocable evidence of an ap
palling student body.
I can’t count the endless flyers of past so
cial events strewn along the sidewalls. Who
could imagine a 3x5 card would require so
much effort, apparently unbearable by most
students to carry more than 10 seconds to
nearby recycling cans? And why would stu
dent organizations allow their names smeared
by the disfigured posters left along light
poles? Obviously taking these posters down
after events would require more energy than
was necessary to tape them up.
Trash taped to li^t poles, seen by potential
students touring the campus, advertises Bron
co Pride in a very distasteful fashion. As these
words go to print, remnants of Homecoming
decorations still litter the FSU Gazebo.
Unfortunately, this behavior does not im
prove indoors.
Staff sources in the Student Center de
scribed multiple instances of neglect. In the
lobby there used to sit a small, blue recycling
bin between the ATM’s. Two trash cans also
occupy the lobby, one next to the copy ma
chines parallel with the ATM’s and one next
to the elevator. Students were “using it as a
trash can!” so staff members relocated the
recycling bin in their office for proper utili
zation.
“It doesn’t stop there.” Evidently when
food-drive boxes and other humanitarian
containers were placed in the Student Cen
ter in the past, “they received the same treat
ment, littered with students’ trash.” Why
some students can’t tolerate a few extra steps
to toss garbage in the appropriate canister
escapes conventional wisdom and shames
Bronco Pride.
If there’s any hope for the student body,
it’s The Green Team, of which Mr. Blauser
advises. A student organization founded in
the fall of 2008, The Green Team (TGT) was
started by about six students, led by found
ing President Tamikka Portee, who expressed
general concern for their community and
campus. TGT developed a mission similar to
the UNC Sustainability Office’s, “advocating
student involvement in green initiatives and
striving to educate FSU students on recy
cling, reducing & reusing.”
TGT has hosted a ‘Recyclone-Residence
Hall Recycling Competition’ in 2010 dur
ing Earth Day week, volunteered in clothing
drives, and conducted countless community
cleanup events, most recently the campus-
wide cleanup on Oct. 27.
Residence hall students as well as those lo
cated in University Place Apartments should
have noticed the induction of small, blue re
cycling bins into individual rooms recently.
This installment directly resulted from the
efforts of TGT. While hall staff members ex
press concerns of having to watch students
more closely to prevent misuse, there’s gen
erally a favorable reception.
Continuing to focus on their mission,
TGT currently plans to integrate scheduled
residence hall meetings in the spring 2012
semester, promoting recycling and raising
awareness. Since their small start of just six
members, TGT has grown to more than 50
members, with more than a dozen actively
participating at each event.
Mr. Blauser also added the new blue
wheeled 68 gallon containers will replace the
65 gallon green ones around campus by early
spring semester. This uniformity should help
students identify where they can recycle their
personal waste basket contents. Let’s hope
this blue initiative achieves green results and
helps redefine our tarnished Bronco Pride.
(The Green Team can be located on Bronco
Advantage under T and membership is free.)
LETTERTOTHEEDITOR Something to consider about homicide
To My Brother i Keeper,
I agree with you in your article, “Homicide, leading cause
of death among African-American youth,” in The Voice, Sept.
21, 2011, as one of the most accurate depictions of this, near
ly ignored, American crisis. Although, I don’t believe you
considered a different American crisis that claims even more
African-American lives than homicide, and that is abortion.
Abortion rates have been dropping in the past twenty-five
years from 29.3 per thousand in 1981 to 19.4 per thousand in
2005, resulting in 1,200,000 abortions in 2005. Thirty-seven
percent of these abortions were obtained by black women.
That is approximately 440,000 abortions in one year (gutt-
macher.org). We cannot ignore the murder of our youth, but
must also address and speak for those who have no voices.
These atrocities in our society, in my opinion, are a result
of our population moving more and more away fit>m the roots
of which our country was founded on, Judea Christian values.
We have become a country with diminished values, morals
and ethics resulting in many of the socio-economic problems
of today. We must become more socially conservative and
look to our God for the answers.
My Other Brother’s Keeper,
Robert Lavalle
FSU Student