Recycle and Recreate

When roaming Lee University’s campus, students carry around all sorts of items needing to be disposed of, especially notebook paper and plastic bottles. Rather than recycling it, the only option students have is to trash it.

This problem has a simple solution: Lee University can become an environmentally friendly, green campus. We can start small. All we need are three bins: one for cans and bottles, one for paper and one for waste.

I’ve seen plenty of other campuses do this successfully. By putting them in every building on campus, a small change could make a big difference.

Recycling will ensure that no materials or natural resources are wasted; it will also save energy, cause less waste to go into landfills and lead to less air and water pollution.

Recycling will also prevent trash from piling up in our current bins and overflowing. For example, the Paul Conn Student Union’s overflowing bins cause our campus to look unclean. According to The Environmental Protection Agency, 75% of U.S. waste could be recycled, but we’re only recycling just over 34% of it.

We still have a long way to go, but Lee University could easily raise that percentage with one small transformation. Because people aren’t informed of the importance of recycling, they don’t care, but this can all be changed through proper education.

God gave us this Earth to be cherished and protected. All the beautiful nature it provides for us needs to be protected. Lee University taking that initiative to make our campus and the world a better place is the first step.

Recycling will take care of the environment and allow products to be used to their fullest extent. With bins in each building, students can conveniently access whatever bin they need and throw away their product in the proper one. Recreating our campus in this way will bring a new vigor, and I’m excited to see what the future will hold for Lee University.