The “Going Green” wave is taking the minds of the populace by storm due to new teachings in schools, and in-fluencing the rest to follow suit. Organizations like the Go Green Initiative and LSU’s Recycling are ensuring the ability to recycle is available to as many students as possi-ble as well as educating them of the benefits of doing so.

According to the go green initiative website, “Schools serve as a catalyst for the community at large. We call this the ‘spillover effect’ … By involving parents, teach-ers, city officials, and local businesses; we find that en-vironmentally responsible behavior modeled at school is taken into the community. The Go Green Initiative works to influence schools by offering to manage recycling projects at big campus schools, thus reaching hundreds of students who talk to their parents. “Parents who see recycling

in the classroom often rein-force the behavior at home, and work instituting recycling at work as well,” informs the Go Green Initiative website.

Another way schools spark the recycling bug is by pre-senting students with the op-tion of recycling on campus, in classrooms, and near eating locations throughout the area. LSU Recycles has taken mak-ing the option available fur-ther by making cost efficient bins easy to find. In fact, there

are 704 outdoor recycling bins available on LSU’s cam-pus for paper, aluminum cans and plastic bottles according to the LSU Recycles website.

“Sometimes we take a saw to the bins and cut a slot for the paper in the aluminum cans bin or we cut a hole in the paper bin, that way bins are more readily available for the students and the program saves some of its limited funding,” says Andres Har-ris, head of LSU Recycles.

H a v -ing re-cycl ing bins in many lo-ca t ions m a k e s it more c o n v e -nient for students.

“The re-c y c l i n g

bins on campus are every-where and they’re bright blue; they are very hard to miss. It makes me feel guilty seeing them every day and not have

anything to put in them,” says Megan Waguespack, a junior at LSU. Going green is stimu-lated by being able to recycle on a regular basis, as well as other aspects such as conser-vation and waste reduction.

Going green is not just about recycling and being eco-friendly; it’s about re-newing the earth. “Earth is suffering and we all—indi-viduals, organizations, cor-porations and governments—must pitch in and do our part to reverse the damage,” says Greg Owen-Boger, founder of E-PlanetSever.com, a web-site focused on spreading the green message by host-ing sites concerned with the green cause. Some believe the green wave is dying, but thanks to the schools renew-ing the concern within their students, this wave will be-come a tsunami once again.

People have different rea-sons for why they do or do not recycle. Recent studies from Massachusetts State Govern-ment have shown people have trouble recycling due to lack of concern for the environ-ment, social pressure, inconve-nience, and lack of knowledge.Here at LSU, students have vary-ing opinions about recycling.

S u p p o r t i n g S t u d e n t S S a y :

“Anything we can do to have a sus-tainable planet is the way to go.”-Mary Striegel, LSU student

“Recycling is the most im-portant thing for ensuring the quality of the planet.”-Brad Nelson, LSU Student

“I don’t know why I recycle; I just want to save the world.”-Udit Ry, LSU Student

St u d e n t S i n o p p o S i t i o n S a y:

“With all the studies of college life, remembering to recycle is not too high on the priority list.”-Marcus Terrebone, LSU Student

“No, I don’t recycle be-cause trash is trash.”-Nolan Brown, LSU Student

“I don’t recycle because the bins are unattractive but it’s a great cause, just not always convenient.” -Silvia Willis, LSU Student

LSU’s recycling program is providing an opportunity for its students and faculty to join the “go green” movement that is quickly spreading across the country. The blue recycling bins next to the trash cans are the most visible example, but what you are likely to miss are all the other efforts taken by LSU recycling.

LSU Recycles is one of the main groups that contribute to a greener LSU. The program has been headed by LSU alum

Andres Harris since 2005. Har-ris is in charge of organizing the program, but also emp-ties many of the bins himself.

There are 106 units for recy-cling glass, plastic, and alumi-num, which are distributed around campus. Also, 704 recycling bins for paper have been placed in of-fices and classrooms. These bins have proved to be effective in col-lecting 617 tons, in 2007 alone.

Many of LSU’s initiatives in-volve items that you wouldn’t necessarily consider recyclable. For example, the Facility De-partment alone is able to recycle tires, car batteries, and motor

oil. Over 3,000 pounds of flo-rescent light bulbs were recycled in 2007. Concrete and pallets are shipped back to the suppliers who are able to reuse the material.

One of the more unique mea-sures is the conversion of used cooking oil to bio-diesel, which is used in the landscaping equip-ment. All of the cooking oil is used, including the by-product glycerin which is turned into soap and is used around campus.

Tree Hugger TimesJune 13, 2008

Louisiana Scholastic Journalism Institute

Manship School of Mass Communication

Volume 1, Issue 1

LSU’s green thumb

Schools surf

See LSU, page 2

Contributing AuthorsMorgan HaywoodTrey Shepard

wave Purple, gold, and... green?Contributing AuthorKathryn Miller

The Environmental Conser-vation Organization and Geaux Green are two organizations at LSU for students wanting to help the environment. Al-though there are two organiza-tions going green, the Geaux Green organization is classi-fied as provisional by the LSU website. The Environmental Conservation Organization, however, is an active group. According to lsu.edu, their pur-pose is to “improve the local environment through commu-nity education and to encour-age conservation and sustain-ability.” Student organizations like these allow students to be more involved, and there is no better way to promote the recy-cling program than by involv-ing the students and educating them on how to help the earth.

LSU organizes green groupsContributing AuthorCaroline Downer

Contributing AuthorsShauni CourvilleElaine GilesDrew Larose

Students can find multiple blue recycling bins on campus

This bumper sticker helps spread the word about recycling

Recycling bins are becoming increasingly available