Editor,
In Friday's Daily Lobo, Marie-Michele Jasmin-Belisle responded to the Daily Lobo's question of the week about the qualities needed in the new UNM president by saying, "He should be more environmentally conscious. There's no recycling - people throw away everything."
With respect to Jasmin-Belisle, she's wrong in implying that President Caldera isn't environmentally conscious, and she's dead wrong when she says there's no recycling at UNM.
President Caldera came here from California. When he moved into the president's house, all the packing materials that were used to move his belongings were recycled. I know this because I personally picked up all the cardboard and paper from his house as the unpacking was done and took the materials to the UNM Recycling facility at 1642 University Blvd. NE.
Ever since he moved into the president's house, I have been called regularly to the house to pick up newspapers, plastic, glass bottles and aluminum cans. I also picked up white paper, colored paper, magazines and phone books. From my point of view, President Caldera walked the talk - he recycled regularly.
Since August of 2003 the University has enjoyed access to a reinvigorated recycling program. In 2003, we recycled 244 tons of materials; in 2004, we recycled 317 tons of materials; and in 2005, we recycled 450 tons of materials. In fact, in 2004, the University won an award from the New Mexico Recycling Coalition for the Best Post-Secondary Educational Institution Recycling Program.
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The Recycling Department picks up from all recycling bins throughout the University at least every two weeks, and in many cases every week. Check shea.unm.edu/recycle.html to see the large variety of materials that are recycled at the University.
Faculty and staff members have access to recycling in their offices and buildings. When the UNM recycling system was set up in the early 1990s, students were not provided access to recycling. Since 2003, it has been the goal of the Recycling Department to provide students with access to recycling.
Unfortunately, it costs money to recycle, and right now the Recycling Department doesn't have sufficient staff or resources to provide students with recycling in each dorm. To stretch our limited resources, the department partnered with the City of Albuquerque to place two large recycling bins for student use by the tennis courts north of Johnson Field. One bin is used for all recyclable materials except for food scraps and glass, while all glass should go in the second bin. We aren't set up to compost food scraps right now.
If it's not the perfect solution, at least it's a start. If students want more recycling services, use political resources such as Campus Greens and your ASUNM student representatives to ensure a small portion of student fees, perhaps $2 per student per fall semester, will go to the Recycling Department.
There are also student volunteer opportunities to help with recycling. Call me at 277-9511 for more information.
Linda McCormick
Resource Conservation Manager
