Sustainability Update: What's green at Regis?

By: Amber Alarid, Staff Reporter

Posted: 9/15/08

The new school year at Regis began with new books, new school supplies, new clothes, and new recycling bins. The bins are the final phase of a three step plan to create a "Sustainable Regis."

A few years ago, RUSGA and Physical Plant joined together to create a plan that would bring recycling to Regis. The plan included three steps, to get recycling in on-campus housing, to assess the progress and educate students, and finally to expand the recycling outward around campus.

Marcus Trucco, student government president, says that in an effort to get recycling on campus in a timely fashion for students to use, RUSGA and Physical Plant completed steps one and three first. The 2007-2008 school year was the first year to have recycling bins available in every room of on campus housing. This 2008-2009 school year is the first to have recycling bins around campus.

The recycling bins around campus arrived in early August, ahead of schedule, to the delight of Zach Owens, director of sustainability for RUSGA, who expected the bins to come in about mid August. Owens has been invested in this project since he was involved in SPEAK, or Students for Peaceful Environmental Action and Knowledge, which was a club here at Regis.

This year SPEAK was in a sense reborn into a committee on sustainability, as part of student government (see article by Zach Owens). Owens' position now gives him access to student government funds in order to promote environmentally friendly living on campus. Owens' committee will be in charge of promoting recycling and the bus passes.

This committee was created after Owens met with former Student Body President Zac Garthe and former Vice President (now president) Marcus Trucco about the importance of recycling on campus. Trucco says recycling is becoming a student movement that RUSGA wants to support. It was because students showed interest in the cause that Owens was able to form a new committee on RUSGA, a first for Jesuit universities. Regis is the only Jesuit university with a committee on student government specifically for sustainability, according to Owens and Trucco.

So far the recycling efforts on campus have been met with mixed feelings. Trucco has heard good things about the single stream recycling that allows students to recycling everything in the same bin, rather than sort through paper, plastic and other items. However, Owens has still received news that students are confused about where recycling bins and dumpsters are.

White recycling dumpsters are behind each of the dorms, and behind Residence Village for the convenience of students (trash dumpsters are dark). Outdoor ecycling bins, a large majority of them are blue, can be found around campus, including the front of the Student Center. In addition, recycling bins have been added to the Field House where various athletic events take place.

Each student room has a bin for trash and one for recyling. Recycling bins have a large sticker that lists what can and cannot be recycled.

Beginning this school the Sustainability Committee will a range of issues, including education about recycling and the bus passes. One of the issues Owens now faces is finding the most efficient way to distribute bus passes in the Spring, since the stickers will not automatically be on student IDs again.

Student Government, Physical Plant, and SPEAK are all to thank for taking the first steps to creating a more Sustainable Regis.