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10/31/2003 Director of Student Union Caught Lying According to Scott Gore, director of the union, student's actions were one of the key motives for the removal of the recycling bins that have been a mainstay of the Student Union for many years. He made this statement in a meeting on Thursday, October 16th with students and other concerned members of the UW-Milwaukee community. In particular, he claims students who use the union were improperly using the recycling containers by putting non-recyclable materials like food waste into them. Gore also stated that other top administrators will be meeting with members of the Peltz Group to come up with a new plan for recycling in the union. The Peltz Group is a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc. which handles waste disposal for UWM. In a phone interview with Carolyn Link, a Recycling Procurement Manager at the Peltz Group, she stated that non-recyclable waste products do not hinder certain parts of the recycling process. While food waste and other garbage do prevent most paper from being recycled, the same is not always true for other recyclables such as glass, plastic and aluminum, she stated. "We expect a certain level of contamination," and said that only a "gross amount" of contamination would prevent recycling from occurring. "Most contaminants [such as food wrappers and containers] get pulled out by hand and … food waste is not a problem because it would get washed out," she said. A concerned employee of the student union who wished to remain anonymous attended a meeting where, "Cindy [Wirtz, Financial Manager for Auxiliary Services in the student union] and Elmer [Hamann, Director of Auxiliary Services in the student union] said [the recycling containers] wouldn’t match the new tiles and they were also looking for more efficient recycling bins." The employee also went on to say that the contaminant issue was not a severe problem and the recycling program could have worked. This person said that the real problem continues to be the loading dock of the student union, where garbage goes out the same dock that food comes in and there is not enough space to sort the garbage and recycling. "Many times recycling ends up in the garbage because there's simply not enough space, and there have been direct orders by supervisors to [put recycling into the garbage]." In the October 16th meeting Gore said, "As administrators we felt that by putting the containers out with the four slots we were doing the job. I can tell you for a fact we were not doing the job." He also said that pre-consumer recycling (recycling of boxes and cardboard) is still occurring in the union and that recycling in administrative offices and the student wing on the third floor of paper products started in September. No time line has been set for re-instituting the post-consumer recycling in the union but he does have a desire to establish a subcommittee to confront the problem. The Recycling and Waste Reduction Law, 1989 Wis. Act 335, started in Wisconsin in 1990 bans plastic, glass, aluminum, steel, office paper, newsprint, magazines and several other items from incineration or land disposal. Students at the October 16th meeting voiced their concerns about recycling in the union. "Universities should be on the forefront, and the role is needed to set an example for future generations," said Emily Muehlenberg, a senior. There was also a desire to have cooperation with administrators from Kelly Wandtke, WisPIRG Chapter Chair. She said, "We feel that it's important to work with administration to institutionalize these programs."
posted by Nathan Hall at 10/31/2003 05:02:00 PM link |
