In today’s economy, money is one of the major issues. Many schools and businesses are going green to save money.
When someone ‘goes green,’ it may initally not be a lot of steps at one time, but in the end it does save money. Residence hall assistants, directors and students all try to promote recycling on the Ottawa University campus.
Junior Elizabeth Wilkens thinks that OU is making improvements.
“Ottawa decided to have no packages for (delivered) mail and have notifications done by e-mail,” Wilkens said. “Some schools are going to start getting rid of libraries and have all textbooks online, what have students done to help the cause of going green?”
Althought recycling may seem like a hassle to some students, the rewards sometimes seem greater.
“The most important thing is the environment itself and then it also helps with global warming,” said Wilkens.
There are numerous places that you can go to recycle on campus. Almost every building on campus has a bottle and can recycling bin.
These buildings include the Hull Activity Center, Ward Science Hall, and Library; underneath the Gazebo and each floor in the residence halls have recycling bends.
Eric Zuelke, a Resident Assistant in Brown also thinks that OU is making the right steps towards a greener lifestyle.
“The school has put out recycling bends in almost every building and they have also decided to go to direct deposits and no checks.”
“I have seen students following the recycling rules and actually using the recycling bends that they have put out for the students to use,” he said.
Here at Ottawa University, students get very creative when finding different ways to recycle and help the economy.
“Students or anybody can recycle milk jugs to use as funnels for such as changing oil in their car,” Zuelke said. “They could also recycle bags and sacks and use them as storage.”
Recycling also brings savings to the university and economy as well.
Erica Weaver is also another student at OU who practices recycling techniques.
“Why wouldn’t you recycle? It is important to the environment,” she said. “Where I work we do a lot of recycling so I feel that I’m giving back to my co-workers.”
While these steps may seem like small progress now, each piece of trash recycled can be a small step in the right direction.