New UA program to reduce hazardous waste on campus
Environment
Mary Robbins
Issue date: 1/16/08 Section: News
"It should be fun," he said.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality set a goal for the state to recycle 45 percent of all waste materials by 2010. The UA is currently at about 30 percent, Brown said.
"That means there is lots of work to do," he said, "because the first part is the easiest part."
The first 30 percent comes from office paper and beer cans that people already recycle, he explained. The tough part comes from the materials that are less convenient to recycle, like cardboard, Brown said.
Brown reiterated the adage "recycle, reduce, reuse," but the order should be altered, he said.
"The best idea is to reduce your use first, reuse what can be reused and then recycle," he said. "Most people go straight to recycle, and they don't put enough attention and focus and planning into reducing."
Brown encourages the community to solicit vendors to use less packaging. He used the "mountains of plastic" that envelop small products, like USB drives, for an example of how much waste is generated in packaging.
Also, choosing products with the least amount of toxicity is important, he said. Using household cleaners with less ammonia are still effective, but do not have the same level of toxicity, Brown said.
A household hazardous waste facility on campus may be in the future for the UA, Brown said. The collection site would prevent hazardous components from ending up in landfills.
"If we succeed in making that happen we will be the first in the nation to have done so," Brown said. "It's a challenge to those of us who organize and try to provide leadership to the effort to inspire people."
For example, Brown admitted that disposing of material at a hazardous waste collection site is not exactly "thrilling."
"Yet, it's these many hundreds of thousands of daily actions that the 22,000 of us on campus do everyday that makes a big difference in what tomorrow's world will look like," Brown said.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality set a goal for the state to recycle 45 percent of all waste materials by 2010. The UA is currently at about 30 percent, Brown said.
"That means there is lots of work to do," he said, "because the first part is the easiest part."
The first 30 percent comes from office paper and beer cans that people already recycle, he explained. The tough part comes from the materials that are less convenient to recycle, like cardboard, Brown said.
Brown reiterated the adage "recycle, reduce, reuse," but the order should be altered, he said.
"The best idea is to reduce your use first, reuse what can be reused and then recycle," he said. "Most people go straight to recycle, and they don't put enough attention and focus and planning into reducing."
Brown encourages the community to solicit vendors to use less packaging. He used the "mountains of plastic" that envelop small products, like USB drives, for an example of how much waste is generated in packaging.
Also, choosing products with the least amount of toxicity is important, he said. Using household cleaners with less ammonia are still effective, but do not have the same level of toxicity, Brown said.
A household hazardous waste facility on campus may be in the future for the UA, Brown said. The collection site would prevent hazardous components from ending up in landfills.
"If we succeed in making that happen we will be the first in the nation to have done so," Brown said. "It's a challenge to those of us who organize and try to provide leadership to the effort to inspire people."
For example, Brown admitted that disposing of material at a hazardous waste collection site is not exactly "thrilling."
"Yet, it's these many hundreds of thousands of daily actions that the 22,000 of us on campus do everyday that makes a big difference in what tomorrow's world will look like," Brown said.
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