Dartblog

In a shocking reversal of trends, the College has actually managed to have a sustainable practice that it knew nothing about — rather than pretend something is more sustainable than it actually is.

Common practice at the College is to highlight new, energy-efficient buildings despite the fact that they have not lived up to expectations in terms of energy efficiency and thus monies saved, while ignoring small, but practical steps to be sustainable.

How is it that Dartmouth spends millions of extra dollars to make its buildings LEED certified, but hasn’t spent the time it takes (about 5 minutes using this website and the chat feature) to find out if a product it supplies in the dining halls — plastic cutlery — is recyclable? You would think the sustainability people on this campus would have sought the answer out before, but all of the people I blitzed searching for such an answer had no idea. I finally had to contact the company on my own (I’m also waiting to hear back about plastic cold cup lids).

I care a lot about recycling efforts on campus for two reasons. Firstly, I am disgusted by the amount of waste that I see here. Walk into a basement on a Sunday morning and look around. The number of plastic cups and aluminum cans that will be thrown out is stunning. Secondly, recycling is also a fantastic way to save money. SAE saves $250 a month via recycling because we were able to reduce our dumpster pickups from twice a week to once a week. We pay for our dumpster to be emptied, but the College hauls our recycling for free (in part due to an agreement with Coca-Cola). It makes simple economic sense to recycle, and yet so few Greek organizations do it, and even fewer do so effectively. Sadly, the College does little to promote and encourage such recycling efforts.

Unfortunately these policies also highlight the College’s emphasis on banner-inducing efforts rather than spending time or money on less glamorous, but more impactful programs. Is it not ridiculous that the Skiway spends thousands of extra dollars to purchase biodiesel vs. regular diesel to run its snow-making machines ($18,000 to be exact according to a senior ski patrol member) while losing money each year — while the college doesn’t see Greek recycling efforts as being worth even a few hundred dollars worth of incentives? The impact from Greek efforts would be definite and quantifiable in saved landfill space and fewer resources used.

I encourage the administration to look carefully at how it promotes sustainability and to support efforts that would make a real impact, even if they have little publicity value. Even better, publicize those efforts and make people see how worthy they are. Students can help; they just need to know how. To begin with, start recycling your plastic cutlery!