My fellow Indiana Daily Student columnist Natalie Rowthorn wrote last week about the need for easy access to recycling, or at least more awareness of the need to recycle, ?on campus.
Her point was more than great and accurate, and I agreed wholeheartedly with her argument. However, I feel that the call to recycle and be environmentally aware goes beyond just IU students and campus.
I live on the south side of Bloomington, a 20-minute walk from campus.
My complex has no recycling bins anywhere.
All of last year my roommates and I threw out bags upon bags of plastic, glass and paper, faced with no other option.
Each time I felt a little twinge of guilt, but I had no car and could not drive to the nearest recycling center.
It wasn’t until my roommate mentioned that she had seen the complex next to us had recycling that we could finally do it. Even so, it’s still a bit of a walk, and it was after a year of dumpster dumping.
As I made my way toward campus, I went to grab a quick bite to eat at a ?fast-food restaurant nearby.
I ordered. The server messed up my order. Normal stuff, but then I watched him dump my food, a big pile of meat and bread, into the garbage.
I understand the need to be sanitary, but I found it hard to believe that the restaurant had no food disposals that could take care of my messed-up order more efficiently and in a more environmentally friendly way.
Campus is a massive space that needs to recycle.
But so is Bloomington.
There is no reason apartment complexes should be unable to provide recycling.
As other columnists have mentioned and discussed before, rent in Bloomington is high.
With rent anywhere from $300 to $500 or more, complexes and landlords should be able to pay recycling fees, much as they provide garbage services.
Just the other day I watched my neighbor throw away two big cardboard boxes from moving. They were still intact. Right into the dumpster they went to be dumped into a landfill, because he had no other ?option.
Bloomington, I’m sure, is not the only city in Indiana that slacks off when it comes to recycling.
But it is unacceptable that a fixable problem should ?remain unsolved.
We have recycling centers in Bloomington. We need to use them.
ewenning@indiana.edu
