Garbage in, garbage kept

University Business, Jan, 2008 by Ann McClure

DURING THE LAST WEEK OF November, Clarkson University (N.Y.) constituents had a graphic demonstration of how much garbage one person can generate in a week. Eight members of the student Environmental Conservation Organization carried clear plastic garbage bags filled with the accumulated non-recyclable trash each had generated. At the end of the week they had a combined 30 gallons of garbage totaling 9.7 pounds. "And we're the environmentally conscious students," points out Madison Quinn, ECO president.

The idea came from a radio report Quinn's environmental law professor Chris Robinson heard. Quinn hopes to repeat the experiment next semester with participants keeping a second bag of recyclable products, as well as non-ECO students participating for comparison. "It was eye opening," Quinn says. "It made me more aware of what I throw away on a daily basis--things you don't think about, like napkins and straws." Considering that the Clarkson administration has spent the last year trying to increase recycling on campus, perhaps the next frontier is a cross-college competition like RecycleMania (www.recyclemania.org), where campuses across America try to collect the least amount of trash and recycle the most per capita.

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