In 1991, when ASU first began a recycling program, the annual budget was $95,900. Sixteen years and thousands of extra students later, that yearly budget is still $95,900, says Kerry Suson, ASU's recycling program coordinator.
Despite touting its commitment to sustainability, ASU has never increased the annual recycling budget. This money is spread thin between Suson's salary, student labor, marketing costs and equipment, including fuel, maintenance and insurance for two large trucks. ASU also pays an outside company to recycle paper, Suson says.
The expansion of ASU's Tempe campus places additional strain on the university's recycling program, Suson says.
"Every time a building opens, it's a budget cut in a roundabout way because we have more to do with the same amount of money," says Suson, whose recycling staff consists of four students working part-time. The recycling program makes about $10,000 yearly from selling scrap metal and cardboard, Suson says.
Bonny Bentzin, manager of ASU's campus sustainability business practices, says the recycling program is underfunded. "It is not just funding that we need. [We need] to be rethinking how we use our resources and how the system runs," says Bentzin, citing that ASU is taking steps to create a more efficient recycling program that also includes reducing the amount of waste the University produces.
By the end of October, ASU plans to implement a new recycling program for classroom and office buildings on Tempe's campus, Bentzin says. The University has not named which buildings will have the new program.
"The difference is that we are going to start using additional staff to move recycling out of the buildings and move recycling bins (next to trash cans) inside buildings," Bentzin says.
This is similar to the program employed at Ohio State University, the only school with a larger student population than ASU. Libby Eckhardt, spokeswoman for the Ohio State facilities operation and development, says the school uses five trucks to pick up both trash and recycling. She could not provide Ohio State's recycling budget because it was included in the overall operations budget.
A representative of the University of Texas at Austin, another large university interviewed for comparison for this article, said their program is self-funded through the $150,000 recycling materials generates. ASU's program makes $10,000 a year selling scrap metal and cardboard, Suson says.
ASU's new program will also feature commingled recycling, where different types of recyclables are combined in one bin, Bentzin says.
Currently, Suson's four part-time student workers pick up recycling from each floor of every campus building, excluding residence halls, collecting between 700 to 800 tons of recyclables per year, Suson says. Recyclables are then transported to and sorted at ASU Surplus Property, a facility about four miles from main campus.
"It's a lot to process and handle," Suson says.
ASU aims to have the entire Tempe campus converted to the new program by Jan. 31, 2008, Bentzin says, adding that the school now recycles about 14 percent of its waste.
"We also want to drop recycling dumpsters outside every residence hall, but can't afford to do that if students don't throw out trash properly," says Bentzin, citing recycling dumpsters contaminated with garbage like pizza boxes, napkins, plastic cups and packaging peanuts.
ASU's Ready Aware Devoted recycling club is launching an education campaign in the dorms this semester, says RAD member Terra Ganem, a junior majoring in non-profit leadership and management.
RAD is also working to provide recycling at events hosted by ASU clubs, says Ganem, who is also filling the newly created position of Campus Environment Director for Undergraduate Student Government.
Aside from recycling, ASU is working to compost more of its green waste and to reduce its waste though green purchasing guidelines, such as buying computers shipped in materials that are easier to recycle, Bentzin says.
University officials are reviewing the guidelines, John Riley of ASU's purchasing department says in an e-mail. "[The guidelines] generally will require that we take environmental impact into account when we buy goods and services," Riley says.
Students can help not only by recycling but also by voicing their ideas, Bentzin says. "We really need students' help and ideas to make this work," Bentzin says.
