Recycling at Columbia is complicated. Each campus has different rules that often differ from municipal laws or our hometown laws.

Bwog spoke with Cathy Resler from the office of Environmental Stewardship to find out more. Simply put, Barnard College recycles everything. Columbia’s Morningside campus, however, follows city laws.

The flowcharts often posted near recycling centers are too long and detailed for most people to bother with, and as a result, recyclables are often contaminated with unrecyclable materials.

To simplify your life, we have created a Handy Flowchart Thinger that should answer the constant question, “Can I recycle this?” Beware, this chart is only valid for the main Columbia Campus–not TC, MC, or Lamont-Doherty (click here for a printable black-on-white version):

Click for a large pretty PDF.

“But why,” you ask, “does Columbia only recycle certain materials?” We answer that question after the jump.

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Move out day seems eons away and we know you have approximately 100 million pages to read and write before then, but that hour when every last scrap in your room has to be gone lingers on the horizon.

To start the cleanup process in an earth-friendly way, search your room for any old plastic bags you forgot to throw out and bring them to College Walk today between 12:30 and 4. If you bring more than 15 plastic bags, you’ll get a free tote bag from EarthCo in celebration of Earth Week. 

Edit 1:55 PM: Event canceled due to rain. We’ll keep you posted with rescheduling.

From now until 4pm, you can go to College Walk and EarthCo will exchange 10 plastic bags (bad for the environment) for 1 Westside Market tote bag (good for the environment).  Seems like a good deal for you and the world!  Also, from the EarthCo email:

The first 70 people will receive a new tote, but after that the rewards do not stop.  All people who come after the bags have been distributed will be entered into a raffle to win a $20 Starbucks card, to help supplement their caffeine addiction that is flaring its ugly head during this fall’s midterm season.

Caffeine and environmentalism?  No way.

Seeking comfort after my tragic, yet beautifully reported assassination, I decided to attend another ESC meeting last night. Alas, no comfort; but a merry time discussing school on-goings was in store.

The Alumni Affairs and Professional Development Representative affirmed Columbia’s first implementation of the Recyclebank program. But one engineer expressed concern about abuse to the Recyclebank’s honor code, citing incidents of students weighing themselves in place of recycled material. ESC’s Gateway-tested solution? “Don’t worry about it,” explained the representative. “People will start to feel guilty after awhile.” I quickly made notes to myself to A) weigh myself that night and B), never, ever feel guilty about it.

Our Student Services rep announced Health Services’ new Did You Know campaign, which aims to once and for all inform us about what Health Services does. I couldn’t help but think of NBC’s The More You Know PSA campaign. And, akin to NBC’s effort, Did You Know is likely to fail in both reviving John Stamos’ career and teaching me what I need to know about my changing body. Which worries me, because my mom says I can’t keep calling her about that stuff.

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In an attempt not to be outshone by the European Commission’s plan to make the Earth a greener place, Housing Services (in conjunction with the Office of Environmental Stewardship, Facilities, and RecycleBank), announced today in the form of an email an “innovative new program…that rewards you for recycling while helping to improve our campus-wide recycling efforts.”

In an email simply abloom with exclamation points, Housing Services explained that all CU first-years will receive a “barcoded key fob,” which in this context is not a racial slur but a reusable recycling bag from John Jay Dining Hall. Who knew?

After activating their account from a website, one would presumably place their recyclables (which materials are recyclable within the program weren’t specified in the email) in his/her bag, take it to a designated area in the Furnald laundry room; the 1^st floor of John Jay and Wallach; or the 4^th, 8^th, and 11^th floors of Carman, and then recycle to his/her (green) heart’s content. Each bag will be weighed, and this weight will allow the student to accumulate points that can be redeemed for Chipotle gift cards (!) and of course the obligatory iTunes gift certificate, among other things.

- NB

Closet filling up with dead appliances? There’s a big crate outside on 115th and Broadway that will take them off your hands, today until 4:00 PM, and tomorrow between 4:00 and 7:00 PM. Say hi to the robot for us.

Bloomberg to World: We’re more diverse than you!

Minutemen are racist, fascist etc. So don’t suspend us for running onto the stage.

Recycle your soda cans and call yo-self an activist.

Another Manhattanville staredown begins.

Wrestling in the Buff for all the marbles.