Washington State University is committed through its Environmental Management System (EMS) and Sustainability Initiative to continually improve its environmental performance, by setting and achieving goals. One of these EMS goals is to improve recycling efforts at the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, Intercollegiate Athletic Events, Special Events, University Recreation facilities and Beasley Coliseum. Recently WSU was a recipient of the Coca-Cola/Keep America Beautiful Recycling Bin Grant. This grant provides WSU with 125 recycling bins which will be used to help achieve this goal.
While WSU has a recycling program on campus that has been successfully established, its focus has been primarily on areas with routine, day-to-day usage such as classroom and laboratory buildings. WSU has tried to promote recycling at Athletic and Special Events and University Recreation facilities there has been limited success. The number of recycling containers available is limited and is not uniform causing confusion. Having more recycling containers, so one can be placed next to each waste receptacle as an alternative waste management option, would make recycling more convenient and improve the recycling rates at these events.
Improving recycling at these games and events will provide an opportunity to not only educate and promote recycling at WSU, but the larger population of WSU fans who return to campus for football and other athletic and special events. The new containers provided by this grant not only address both of these issues, but also promote recycling and show a commitment for environmental stewardship by Coca-Cola and WSU.
For more information contact Jason Sampson at sampsonj@wsu.edu.
