Editor,
UNM is amazing. The letter from Mary Vosevich published in the Daily Lobo on Monday about all that UNM is doing to achieve sustainability and the disappearance of recycling bins from UNM hallways are classic examples of wonderful-sounding talk short-circuited by occurrences that point in exactly the opposite direction.
Yes, UNM has decreased energy usage since 2001, but sustainability is not just about consuming less electricity and water. It is a full package. A significant portion of that package is recycling. Last week, I walked into the building where I work to discover that the recycle bins for paper, plastic and aluminum had disappeared from their formerly prominent and visible locations, in hallways on all three floors of Northrop Hall.
I later discovered them hiding in an open student lounge room on the first floor and absent from the other two floors. I discovered the disappearing act occurred because the state fire marshal had declared them to be a fire hazard in the hallways. The net effect is that it is much more difficult to successfully recycle in our building. I have recently learned that numerous other buildings on campus have eliminated recycling bins completely because they have no place to put them.
What doesn't get recycled goes into the trash. So what's the sustainability connection? Simply put, every recycled aluminum can saves 90 percent of the energy required to make a new can. Every plastic bottle saves about 35 percent, and every piece of paper saves about 20 percent, apart from saving another tree.
Recycling should be part of everyone's sustainability calculations, and yet I can find no information on UNM's Web site that it is. I did find an outline on SHEA's Web site about UNM's recycling efforts, and a self-congratulatory press release from July 14, but no connection to sustainability
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efforts.
Disappeared and hard-to-find recycling bins in our buildings equal less recycling and a net increase in consumption of resources and energy. In spite of their ambitious Web site and press release, I understand that UNM's recycling program is significantly understaffed with the net result that not everything that goes in the bins actually gets recycled, since there are not enough people on staff to sort it out. Perhaps, making the bins harder to find will result in a more manageable volume of material. Pardon my cynicism, but I've been around this campus a long time.
Sustainability is important but only if it is viewed as a whole system. Part of that system is the saving of energy that is the focus of Vosevich's letter. Another part is reuse and recycling of material that is not getting the attention it deserves. We should be making recycling easier for people to do, not harder. I am hopeful that all of the facets of sustainability will be included in UNM's plans for future.
James Connolly
UNM staff
