Recycling Display Asks Question, 'Do YOU Single-Stream?'

Published 01.19.2011

News

Simulated living areas mimic recycling opportunities at the desk ... in the TV room... and in meal preparation The Energy Conservation Subcommittee long has been interested in the issue of recycling at Penn College and, when the college switched to single-stream recycling from the old system (in which recyclables were separated), it decided to help educate the campus community about this new approach. Subcommittee members Bonnie L. Ingram, science laboratory technician, and Bruce E. Huffman, instructor of media arts/video production, among them have assembled a Madigan Library display of three settings in which students and employees might find themselves: a desk, an easy chair with a side table, and a folding table showing cooking and eating areas. Each area includes a variety of items such as a newspaper, magazine, cereal box, water bottle, soda can, etc. most of which are recyclable (and a very few that are not). Labels placed on the items point out which can be recycled and which cannot, as the subcommittee tries to show that very many items encountered on a daily basis can be. The subcommittee also provided links to related videos prepared by Waste Management Inc., the college's trash hauler: How Single-Stream Recyclables Are Sorted, Residential Single-Stream Recyclingand Business Single-Stream Recycling. The display will remain in the library's first-floor atrium through Feb. 11, accompanied by signs and posters explaining single-stream recycling, along with a handout to guide faculty/staff and students on what can be included: