Mears: SHSU 'drops the ball' with on-campus recycling accessibility

You’ve just finished your coke and now you’re left with an empty plastic bottle. What do you do with it? A lot of people would throw it in a trash bin without thinking twice about it, but what about those that recycle? Although Sam Houston State University does offer its students with a few ways to recycle, it makes recycling hard for its students because they do not advertise or inform the students of the different recycling options available to them.

While there are many blue bins marked “recycle” placed throughout the buildings on campus, many students are unaware that these bins are even here. When asked if he thought SHSU did enough to encourage recycling, senior marketing and management major Ashton Winfree stated that he felt SHSU did not do enough and he had only noticed the bins were located in the LSC.

Students are not only unaware of the recycle bins, but they are also unaware of the fact that SHSU’s vending department sets up times at the CHSS turn around on Wednesday mornings and afternoons between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. to try to encourage students to come by and drop off their recyclable material.

SHSU has dropped the ball when it comes to keeping students informed about the recycling programs offered. From the unknown recycling bins to the recycle pick up on Wednesdays, SHSU has not kept its students informed about these programs.

To fix this issue, they need to make students more knowledgeable about the programs at SHSU by advertising more. Not just by posting flyers on a bulletin board in one of the many buildings on campus, but they need to make an announcement and let the students know. They don’t need a literal announcement like they do in high school to let you know what was for lunch that day, but a table in the mall area to hand out flyers, stop students and let them know about the different ways SHSU tries to encourage recycling, how recycling helps the environment, enlighten students about where the blue recycle bins are located and how the vending department offers a recycle pick up in the turn around on Wednesdays.