Spring Break
Tips on how students can recycle and reuse
Focus Department
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Focus
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The UConn Co-op now has a large selection of eco-friendly metal water bottles to reduce the number of plastic drink containers we send to landfills each day and students rarely come across garbage cans that aren't paired with the green and blue recycling containers for plastic and paper.
What students don't hear much about is the middle part of the three-part eco-friendly mantra - "reuse." There's a reason it comes before "recycle," too. The longer we use something is used before it's thrown out, the better it is for the environment. Here are some simple ways to reuse the things encountered every day on campus.
Newspapers: Whether it's The Daily Campus or the New York Times, there is always someone in search of copy. If you finish reading your favorite sections and the paper is still intact, there's no reason to recycle it right away. Fold it back up and leave it on the table for the next person or place it back or the stack.
Plastic grocery bags: If you forget your cloth grocery totes at home or otherwise end up with a plastic grocery bag on your hands, don't just toss it! Save them for use as (free!) trash bags in your room. Keep them around to hold or transport muddy shoes, wet clothes and umbrellas. Place one on the ground near the door for boots or keep one under your shower caddy to collect drips and mess.
Plastic bottles: If you happen to buy water or juice on the go, fill the bottle back up the next time you leave a dining hall. The bottles aren't meant for repeated or constant refilling, but if you're going to recycle it anyway you might as well get one more fill out of it! Recycling is great but remember to check labels too; most plastic drink containers (including most water bottles and Vitamin Water) are now returnable for a five-cent refund just like soda cans.
Paper: Most of us have adjusted to tossing our used papers into the ResLife recycle bags and bringing them to our recycle room. Consider saving your one-sided handouts, readings, first drafts and other seemingly spent pages as scrap paper. Use the scraps for to-do lists, bookmarks and snide notes to your roommate reminding them to take the garbage out, for once. Imagine how much you'll save on Post-Its!
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