Comments on: GreenBwog: Trimming Your Wasteline

By: Nobler

Nobler — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:53:25 +0000

The real question is how much columbia makes by cashing in on the bottle deposits… those nickels add up.

By: here are the steps:

here are the steps: — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:01:11 +0000

1) buy less shit
2) buy shit with less packaging
3) we gotta get compost on this campus–then we could compost all those dirty paper plates and stuff like we do in the good old Bay Area (although sending stuff to China isn’t a good idea).

modern recycling is at best a band-aid! stop shopping. use your electronics until they fully fully fully die (you don’t have to upgrade your blackberry!). don’t buy clothes to wear just a few times. ladies, you don’t need that many shoes (and nobody needs uggs, period).

enjoy life as a post-materialist. you will never be fulfilled if you keep inventing desires to satisfy. we post-materialists have one desire–to preserve nature and create a just society.

By: If

If — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:33:41 +0000

you recycle cans and bottles properly, you are stealing the deposit refunds from homeless people and students who dig them out of the trash.

By: This

This — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:31:04 +0000

system is way too complicated and why no one recycles.

Also, who wants to pay more in housing costs to hire some recycling firm?

By: ZACA

ZACA — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:03:08 +0000

Action Card = Action Carting (the company Barnard uses)

Other than that, thanks for the very thorough and accurate write-up!

If everyone visited the Environmental Stewardship website, the world (aka Columbia) would be a better place.

By: for serious

for serious — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 04:52:18 +0000

I’ve always gotten the feeling that the oh-so-visible recycling bins on campus and anyone’s efforts to use them, mostly end up quite literally “in the trash”. Instead of trashing entire bags because one person, who didn’t know any better because he wasn’t informed, threw in the wrong kind of bottle why not make this kind of stuff more obvious. It shouldn’t take Bwog to sift through this. At Columbia everything’s about appearances, as long as everyone sees the recycling bins and keeps donating.

By: Resident Adviser

Resident Adviser — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 04:10:37 +0000

i’m going to post the flowchart up in my lounge. environmental stewardship should work with housing to get this information out to all RA’s at Columbia.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 04:08:46 +0000

Hey Bwog…great piece. This is important information that everyone should know about.

The real question is how to get Columbia to make sure that they are not just disposing of all the contaminated bags. If students don’t know they are contaminating, how are they expected to change their behavior. Also, how does Columbia get a recycling service like Barnard has? If they are serious about being a university that cares about the environment, they need to shell out some cash to hire a service that will recycle the massive amount of items that Columbians place in recycling bins each day.

By: this was great

this was great — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:55:20 +0000

thanks! well done and helpful!

By: a resounding

a resounding — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:40:16 +0000

thank you, bwog! more flowcharts. always more flowcharts.

By: enthusiastic

enthusiastic — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:15:41 +0000

This is a great, great thing. Good job bwog — keep GreenBwog going!

By: barnard ecorep

barnard ecorep — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:51:42 +0000

Bwog! Thanks for bringing attention to this. A few things:

The company Barnard contracts for our waste/recycling is called Action Carting (not Action Card).

And for glass and plastics that can’t be recycled at Columbia, change the flow-chart to say ‘bring it to barnard!”

By: hooray for barnardia!

hooray for barnardia! — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:19:36 +0000

’nuff said.