By Katie Tegtmeier (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: October 10, 2012
What a refreshing bottle of water – now where is the recycling bin?
If you’re anything like the other thousands of students attending UFV this fall, you have probably noticed the absence of recycling bins in classrooms.
UFV is clearly a school that cares about the environment and has invested money and time into constructing their new campus to the highest “green” standards. So why would a school which has set the bar in eco-friendly architecture turn a blind eye to recycling?
It’s not only the students that find this disappearance baffling, but the janitorial staff as well. Now our school custodians are forced to rifle through our trash to find the recyclables. Not only is that a totally disgusting job, but it is completely unnecessary when you compare the time and effort manually sorting costs compared to that of just getting the freaking blue bins in the class rooms.
Some may argue that students are careless and don’t bother throwing their recyclables in the trash, but I assure you, UFV students (at least a hefty majority), take pride in our ability to differentiate the garbage can from the recycling bin, and we distribute our refuse accordingly. I mean, we are in university after all.
I also believe that this recycling bin problem ties into the other problems UFV has faced with what it is lacking at the new Canada Education Park campus in particular. They are lacking class room space, with the Level 0 floor changing their storage rooms into classrooms to accommodate the overflow of students. They are lacking enough parking at a close proximity, and they are lacking water fountains.
I understand that parking and classroom shortages are hard problems to solve immediately. Those are just my own personal frustrations with the new campus. But what really gets me is the lack of water fountains. A friend of mine brought it up to me after class one day, and up until that point I hadn’t noticed that, other than a sink with a tap by the Tim Hortons, there was no water fountains on campus. Having always brought my water bottle with me, I hadn’t realized how inconvenient this is, up until I forgot my water bottle one day and had to buy an overpriced water bottle at the Tim Hortons. Not impressed, guys.
So with more students having to purchase water bottles for lack of drinking fountains, you would think UFV would put two and two together and say, “Ohhh yeah, we need a recycling bin for those.” So hopefully in the near future, we will see a reappearance of the blue bins. If not … well I think the student body will think of something.
