January 21, 2010
The Parthenon
Recycling group hands out water bottles, plans second giveaway
Marshall University’s campus-wide recycling program recently had success at the first water bottle giveaway of the semester.
The interest shown by students encouraged planning for another handout to faculty and staff in the coming weeks. The Sustainability Department is promoting the program. Sustainability manager Margie Phillips was in charge of the event.
“We had a lot of interest, there were students buying books and the student center was busy,” Phillips said.
Volunteers were in the Memorial Student Center everyday between Monday and Friday at varying times.
“Being there at different times of the day allowed more students to take advantage,” Phillips said.
The campus-wide recycling program, Be Marshall Green, is not only for students. Phillips is organizing another bottle handout for faculty and staff within the next few weeks, but a date has not been set.
“We want to promote as much as we can and any students who didn’t get their bottles last week can come and get them then,” Phillips said.
As of Jan. 14, they have handed out 24 boxes, totaling 1,152 aluminum water bottles. Although the final calculations of last week’s promotion have not been tallied, Phillips said he hopes that the next giveaway week will be more successful.
The Sustainability Department is able to do projects like this because of a Department of Environmental Protection grant that was written in order to start the program.
Victoria Wheeler, senior marketing and management information systems major from Weatherford, Texas, was one of 1,152 students who participated in the event.
“Having the bottle will keep me from having to use plastic, and I don’t mind refilling it from the tap,” Wheeler said.
Reusable water bottles may seem like a small contribution to the green initiative, but the Container Recycling Institute, CRI, gives data that shows the sale of plastic water bottles have been rising in the U.S. over the past decade.
According to the CRI’s Web site, Americans buy 34.6 billion plastic water bottles per year, and 80 percent of those bottles are disposed in a landfill.
With the current economic situation, reusable water bottles become important because it could lower costs for taxpayers. “We want to remind students to recycle everyday,” Phillips said.
The bottles are physical prompts for this idea, imprinted with the words, Refill. Reuse. Recycle.
Wheeler commented on color and size of the bottle.
http://www.marshallparthenon.com/news/recycling-group-hands-out-water-bottles-plans-second-giveaway-1.2142103