After a decline in student participation in the late 1990s, the recycling program at Bakersfield College has almost disappeared completely.
According to SGA President Ash West, who has spoken to BC President William Andrews about developing an effective recycling program, BC administrators are concerned that they would have to hire more custodial staff to manage the program.
West also said that a reinstatement of a recycling program, were it to happen, would probably take place between semesters.
“They usually don’t like implementing something mid-semester,” West said.
According to Robert Day, auxiliary services custodial and grounds director, BC does currently recycle.
In 1999, Assembly Bill 75 passed. The bill (AB75) required all “state agencies” to divert 25 percent of their total solid waste from going into a landfill by Jan. 1 2002, and then 50 percent by Jan. 1, 2004. BC is compliant with the state requirements, but campus recycling on an individual scale is almost nonexistent.
According a 2004 report that Day filed to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, BC diverted 54 percent of its generated wasted from ending up in a landfill.
Day said that BC currently recycles cardboard after it has been accumulated and pressed into 300-pound bales. It is stored behind the cafeteria until there are 25 bales, then a recycling program picks them up.
Day also said that BC is credited for a percentage of recycled items picked up from the Bakersfield Association of Retarded Citizens bins located in the college’s University Ave. parking lot. According to statistics provided to him by the city of Bakersfield, BC is responsible for 10 percent of the aluminum, 20 percent of the cardboard, 10 percent newspaper, 10 percent plastic bottles, and 10 percent of the magazines deposited in the BARC bins.
“I don’t really know how they arrive at those percentages,” Day said.
In addition to the cardboard and small percentages of collected recyclable material, Day said that all of BC’s “green waste” is collected by the county and taken to a mulching site.
“We’re doing what we can at this point,” Day said.
Other California community colleges have been more involved in developing recycling programs on their campuses. Day said that having a recycling program at BC would be a “worthy cause” but that it would require a “concentrated effort.” He suggested that a starting point would be to actually make sure that trash gets into designated containers.
Recycling Program Coordinator Madeline Brodie from Santa Monica College said that her school has had an active program for over 15 years.
“Schools are supposed to recycle,” Brodie said.
Brodie said that SMC currently recycles aluminum, plastic bottles, cardboard and paper and that all the “green-waste” on campus is composted in bins that house about 300 pounds of worms. The worms help to speed up the breakdown of the materials and the by-product is worm excrement, or “castings.” The castings, which are rich in nutrients, are then used by the campus’ landscapers to fertilize plants.
We’ve gotten grants from the Department of Conservation,” Brodie said.
Brodie said that SMC is also a member of the California Collegiate Recycling Council. The council is a culmination of University of California, Cal State, California Community Colleges and Private Universities within California that brainstorm about ways to improve recycling programs at college campuses.
“It’s different schools getting together and sharing ideas,” Brodie said.
Brodie cited some problems that schools might have in building and maintaining a stable recycling program. First and foremost is support. Brodie said that schools must have the support of the administrators as well as the students.
Another problem that arises, even with an established program, is the responsibility of picking up the recyclables.
“You can get really inexpensive containers, the problem is: ‘who is going to pick it up?'” Brodie said.
Although BC recycles enough to comply with AB75, the school still sends large quantities of recyclable items to the landfill.
Custodial Warehouse Clerk Bill Schroeder said that refuse bins in the Cafeteria and Campus Center contain close to 100 percent of recyclable items when they are emptied and the classroom trash bins contain about 50 percent recyclable items when they are emptied.
“Campus Center is a little heavier because of the concentration of students is heavier,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder said that after large events in Memorial Stadium, the trashcans have large amounts of recyclables. He also said that students sometimes
Schroeder, however, feels that having a recycling program would not be a good idea.
Shortage in the custodial staffing is already a problem, according to Schroeder, adding a recycling program to manage on top of the duties already required of them would “be a disaster.”
“We don’t have time to mess with that stuff,” Schroeder said. He added, “Their hearts might be in the right place, but it won’t work.”