SARAH YORO | staff writer
In 2008, APU received a $193,364 grant for beverage recycling in campus living areas from California’s Department of Conservation. Last week, the state pulled all recycling grants due to the budget cut resulting in a postponement of the new recycling program.
“We were initially told that the state would not be able to fund any projects from March until August,” Assistant Director of Environmental Stewardship Toney Snyder said. “Then, I was called the following week and now they’re saying, ‘We don’t even know if we can pay you in August.’”
Although Facilities Management is collecting the recycling bins previously distributed to students, Snyder is hoping the program will start up again.
“We have probably $180,000 left to spend on our grant. The state has every intention of allowing us to continue [the program] once they get their finances in order, but they don’t know when that will be,” Snyder said. “So, I wouldn’t say the program is canceled, it’s really postponed.”
The program, which cashes in recycled materials, earned $643 in its first month. According to Snyder, the custodian who collected the bins each week estimated less than half of the students were participating.
According to Snyder, the recycling proceeds are going back into the program budget and towards an APU scholarship for an Azusa resident.
“What I’ve been doing is taking a portion of that money and giving it to an APU scholarship. Some of the money is going back into our budget so we can continue things like this, but we have been donating some of the money,” Snyder said. “I’m open in the future, if we can get this program rolling again, to get some of the money for other causes.”
In addition to recycling bottles and cans, Snyder and the environmental club started recycling white paper in an effort to reduce waste expenses for the university.
“I have six students that are volunteering their time from the environmental club and they’re collecting white paper from the offices. The state has not authorized us; they won’t pay for white paper recycling, only bottles and cans,” Snyder said. “[Last Wednesday] we just made our first bale of solid white paper that was collected from the offices. Now that it’s in a bale-form, it has dollar value to it.”
Prior to this effort, white paper was thrown into the Athens mobile garbage bins.
Currently, there are 40 Athens mobile garbage bins on campus, costing the university $3,000 each, annually.
By recycling white paper through bales, the school can reduce the amount of mobile garbage bins needed on campus.
According to students, the recycling program is important because it helps them do their part in taking care of the environment.
“I think recycling is important because it’s the process of renewing resources that our country demands over and over again,” junior sociology major Katherine Rogers said. “I am actually used to [recycling] being a law, because I’m from Seattle. It’s strange to me that it’s not a requirement here and you can personally get refunded for recycling.”
From the initial state grant, APU invested $13,000 on the blue recycling containers dispersed to students in on-campus living areas. Due to the postponement, students need to return their blue recycling bins to their Resident Advisors.
“Everyone on my hall in Trinity used [the recycling bins],” freshman applied exercise science major Alexa Douglas said. “I don’t understand why [the state] would take away funding like that. It raises money for our school and it also helps our earth.”
If the recycling program does not re-gain state funding, Snyder intends to ask students to be the driving force of the program.
“If the state does not reactivate the funding by fall, I’m going contact the student body and request help,” Snyder said. “If the state doesn’t reactivate it, the students are my manpower.”
