on Teaching Care for the Environment
My alma mater, Goshen College, is apparently experiencing something of a crisis in recycling. For a number of years, since recycling in the dorms was cut from the physical plant’s budget, it has been handled by a team of student volunteers associated with Ecopax (which I helped organize while I was a student). However, after too many semesters of struggling to get enough volunteers to help, Ecopax has decided to stop picking up the recycling in an attempt to get the administration to pay more attention.
Apparently the administration has expressed its support for finding a long-term resolution to the problem, which is good. But Becky Horst identifies a key question:
Should recycling at GC become normative, teaching creation care by institutional example only? Or should it become a system charged with helping to educate and create a culture of creation care on our campus?
I talked to a friend from Ecopax, who explained that one concern she has heard from someone in the administration is that actually paying students to pick up the recycling would be bad, since the college wants to encourage caring for the environment because it is the right thing to do, rather than because there is a reward. This sounds like a bad excuse for saving a few dollars. In the real world, change happens due to incentives; students can learn as much from seeing that in action as they can from organizing themselves (though both should be encouraged). A recycling program run by paid employees instead of volunteers is likely to be much more reliable.
In addition, from my time in Ecopax I know that the students at Goshen College who care about campus sustainability are never at a loss of ideas for new projects. However, recycling was often top priority and took time and energy away from more ambitious, interesting, and educational projects. Therefore, I think that institutional support for recycling is likely to aid rather than hurt the establishment of a “culture of creation care” at GC.
It doesn’t have to be either-or, and I encourage Goshen’s Ecological Stewardship Committee to seek a resolution that promotes creation care via both institutional example AND empowering motivated students to pursue their ideas.
David,
I believe it should be normative as any other view risks it being considered optional. This is probably in part because I come from Seattle where recycling is not only expected, but required by city law. If garbage collectors notice too much recyclable material in your garbage can, they will not collect it and put a note on it telling you to re-sort it and won’t pick it up. They are not out looking for it, this is just when they happen to notice it. Further, I don’t see how having a small group of people who already clearly value ecological awareness picking up the recycling has any educational value: it is an externalities to most of the students on campus who, I doubt, even realize it is done by volunteers. In this same line, I find it ironic that the trash dumpsters are easily avaleble on heavily traveled routs making it easy to drop ones trash off on the way to class, but the recycling is relegated to the far side of the newcomer parking lot. If we as a campus community really wanted to encourage recycling we would give the recycling dumpsters at least as accessible a location as the garbage.
Finally, is anyone going to post this on the opinion board? if not, may I? I think it belongs there.
-Jesse
Jesse said this on January 28th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Jesse,
Thanks for your thoughts. I’m on the wrong side of the continent for posting things on the opinion board, so go for it if you like.
Also, did you know that while the college has to pay for each truckload of garbage picked up, recycling is currently taken from the bins on the south side of campus for free?
davisagli said this on January 28th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
David,
I realize you would not be posting it in person, but figured someone else might be. I will see what I can do about getting it up in the next day or two (tomorrow is my busy day). I did not know that recycling was free, but it is not surprising.
Hope your doing well.
Jesse said this on January 29th, 2008 at 2:36 am