A university that has received plenty of praise for other environmentally friendly efforts finally put into effect a campus-wide recycling program last week.
Students and faculty are expressing satisfaction with what they’ve seen in the first week of the expanded — and expanding — program.
Click here to see a video feature on the new recycling program.
“I actually recycled for the first time last night,” said Kirk Averitt, a junior music major from Decatur, Ala. “Adding this to our already LEED certified buildings will make us more sustainable.”
In fact, before the recycling was put into place, there were already plenty of green initiatives, like geothermal buildings, bike racks and tray-less dining here.
But students pushed hard for recycling. Before recycling was introduced, many students would take their recyclables to the drop-off located at Hillsboro High School, just a few blocks from campus.
Now Lipscomb students simply must take their recyclables down the hall of their residence halls.
Jackson Sprayberry, student body president and Lipscomb senior, said that because so many students made the university aware of how important recycling is to them, the administration could not ignore the need for a recycling program.
Scott McDowell, vice president for student development and dean of campus life, heard that need from the students.
“Jackson resurrected [the issue of recycling] with a sense of urgency,” McDowell said. “Also, I had one of my freshman students, Ellie Stimax, who brought it back to me with urgency.”
After 14 months of active pursuit for recycling from the SGA, receptacles were ordered on Oct. 20 and were in place three days later.
Located in every residential hall, the bins are convenient for students. McDowell gives credit to the SGA and students.
“As we started digging into this, again the SGA stepped up and said, ‘we’ll help fund this,'” McDowell said. “And so I think we got a good sense of urgency on this and got it done.”
Jordan Lewis, a junior nursing major from Chattanooga, Tenn., wants recycling to become a daily habit for Lipscomb students.
“I am really excited about this, because I think that it will make everyone much more aware that it is easy to recycle and that it makes a big difference,” Lewis said.
The vision for Lipscomb recycling includes adding receptacles to the Bennett Campus Center and all academic buildings.
Hoping to drastically reduce the amount of waste going to landfills, the goal is to reduce the garbage dumpsters on campus and transform some of the garbage dumpsters into recycling dumpsters.
Lipscomb can now join a host of other universities in celebrating its own recycling program. For example, Vanderbilt created a recycling program that is easily accessible to students in 1992. Belmont University expanded their already existing sustainability initiatives to make recycling campus-wide in 2008.
Even prior to the recycling, Lipscomb was garnering environmental kudos. In April, Lipscomb was named by The Princeton Review as “one of the country’s most environmentally responsible colleges.”
The Nashville Post recently featured Lipscomb among Music City’s 50 Greenest Companies. McDowell stated that his office is hearing plenty of praise for the new program.