In all seriousness, if every Dysktra resident were to contribute one plastic bottle, we as a collective residence hall would be able to recycle close to one thousand bottles. Since the energy saved by recycling just one plastic bottle will power a computer for 25 minutes, multiply that by 1,000 and that's enough energy to power a computer for 17 days, 8 hours and 40 minutes. And recycling 10 tons of PET plastic saves as much greenhouse gas emissions as removing more than three cars from the road for one year. Have I convinced you yet? Dykstra residents, GO RECYCLE!
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It’s a great initiative promoted by Dykstra in order to encourage more people to recycle - if not voluntarily, for some compensation. Not only is this a fun and easy way to advocate recycling in order to acquire a rather tasty prize, but furthermore educate participants of the impact they can potentially have collectively, or even alone, by doing such a simple task as recycling a single bottle. It’s always astonishing to realizing how recycling a single bottle every day can have such long term impacts on our ability to sustain our livelihood and preserve the natural environment.
ReplyDeleteI would not mind if they carried these same competitions over to the other dorms, in order to distribute as much information and have as much impact as possible. Perhaps other projects like a dorm garden or other “green” projects can be initiated in order to not only provide a venue of diversion to students and residents, but furthermore educate them of the environment and the importance of conservation and sustainability.
I live in Dykstra and we're participating in it. We might or might not have hoarded our plastic bottles a few weeks before the contest. I think this is a great initiative because it encourages people to recycle and makes them aware that recycling exists as I know people that don't recycle at all. They throw their recyclables in the thrash and don't take a second to think about the impact of throwing away every recyclable item.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Go Dykstra! :) One thing I find interesting problem about these recycling drives is also known as the "empty jail" problem. If there's an empty jail, either no one commits any crimes, or the police couldn't catch anyone. Likewise, if there is no recycling materials collected, either people didn't recycle, or they didn't buy anything that could be recycled in the first place. Personally, I feel like trying to meet a quota on this may actually benefit people who buy MORE plastic bottles, for example, rather than using reusable water bottles. For that reason, I question the usefulness of these competitions.
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