It is easy to recycle on the UA campus. But for the many students living off-campus, recycling can be not only an inconvenience, but also a challenge.
When UA students live in the dorms, recycling is available in their buildings -ðð usually right down the hall. However, off-campus residents are forced to find other ways to recycle when their apartment complexes don’t provide recycling bins.
Lindsay McDonald, a nursing junior, who lived at Zona Verde last year, 1201 E. Drachman St., said she found another way to recycle because her complex didn’t make recycling available to her.
McDonald said she and her roommate used to sneak their recycling into private recycling bins in front of nearby houses.
“”We used to go to this one house that seemed to always have an empty recycling trash can,”” McDonald said. “”We would put it in there, but if it looked too full we’d go find another one.””
They would do this every one to two weeks, depending on how much recycling they had, she said.
“”I feel like even though it wasn’t that much recycling, that we had … the whole ‘I’m one person but if 100 people do this it’s a lot’ kind of mentality, and how can I expect other people to do it if I don’t,”” McDonald said.
North Point Student Apartments, 850 E. Wetmore Rd., and Entrada Real, 1 W. University Blvd., don’t have recycling receptacles available to their residents.
Garret Buehner, manager of North Point Student Apartments, said the complex has received many requests from residents to put in recycling bins.
He said the complex put in a request to a waste management company for recycling bins due to the large number of requests.
“”A lot more people are becoming more aware of the environment and the global change that’s going on,”” Buehner said. “”I believe that they’re realizing that they can have an effect and an impact, and they want to be a part of it. We want to definitely encourage them to be a part of it and we want to help them out.””
Buehner said they are waiting on a bid from the company to see if large recycling bins can be put in their complex. He said even if larger recycling receptacles aren’t an option, the complex wants to put smaller recycle bins in.
The Reserve at Star Pass, 41 S. Shannon Rd., has smaller recycling bins in the front office for resident use, said complex manager Samantha Wilson.
Space constraints limit their ability to provide residents with large recycling bins that would better serve resident’s needs, she said.
Students who don’t have recycling options near their homes can also use one of 14 neighborhood recycling centers located throughout Tucson.
The recycling centers are open to the public and are easily accessible, said Ernesto Velarde, public information specialist with Tucson Environmental Services.
There are two neighborhood recycling centers located near campus. One is located at Mansfield Park, on Fourth Avenue, one block south of Grant Road, and the other is located in Himmel Park’s north parking lot on 1st Street and Tucson Boulevard.ÿ
In 2008, people who used the neighborhood recycling centers saved 70 semi-trucks full of reusable material from ending up in the trash, Velarde said.
The recycled material gets reused, cardboard boxes get remade into cardboard boxes and plastic bottles become carpet, he said. Students can find out which center is closest to them by visiting www.tucsonrecycles.org.
“”Number one, the most important reason (to recycle) is it keeps good stuff from going to waste in landfills,”” Velarde said.
