Abby Lashway
Equinox Staff
“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is a jingle that always makes us rethink ways to throw out our garbage. Recycling is more important now than ever before. We have caused catastrophic damage to our oceans and wildlife. So Keene State decided to take a stand.
Mathew Bacon, who did not respond to requests for comment, is bringing friendly competition to campus. RecycleMania is a competition for higher education institutes. The more we reduce, reuse and recycle, the better off the planet will be, and the higher rank of standing. Many different colleges are competing. We don’t just want to be the number one college for recycling; Keene state has a goal to be 50 percent waste-free by 2020, and the long-term goal is to make Keene State a certified waste-free campus by 2030.
A lot of students think that this number is somewhat unobtainable, considering there are so many things on campus we have to throw out that are plastic and can damage the environment, such as plastic bottles and containers. However, the school is already taking steps to limit plastic, like handing reusable bags to students to cut out disposable plastic bags. Even with such drastic changes, people are still skeptical of how recycling makes an actual impact.
First-year Brianna Asta does her best to recycle and sort all of her trash. However, she is skeptical that we will be able to make Keene State 50 percent waste-free by 2020.
“I think we can definitely make changes and maybe be 5 percent more waste-free, but 50% is extremely hard to obtain.” She went on to talk about how nobody has ever heard of RecycleMania and that if we can get the entire school on board the goal might be achievable; however, nobody really takes an interest in recycling.
First-year Sarah Balkans had heard about RecycleMania through outside sources. She said recycling was extremely important, with all the environmental issues going on, and we have to force ourselves to go waste-free because the planet is at stake.
Senior Emily Foy lives off-campus and doesn’t usually hear about events or competitions going on. However, when she learned about RecycleMania she said it was a fantastic idea and that Keene State needed to get the word out there. “We have made a lot of good strides as a college and I definitely think that making Keene State 50 percent waste-free is possible.”
With more advertising, the campus will definitely become more united. The RecycleMania competition is going on from now until Saturday, March 28. The contest results will be posted on Wednesday, April 29. RecycleMania is a great way to unite the Owls and take a stand about a global issue. In the next few weeks, there will be a chart in the student center showing the school ranking and how well the school is doing recycling. Let’s reduce, reuse and recycle to make 50 percent waste-free our main goal for 2020.
Abby Lashway can be contacted at
alashway@kscequinox.com
