U. to receive recycling award

Recycle this newspaper. Put it in one of the many white plastic tubs labelled "mixed paper" found all over campus. And then give a big round of applause for the University, whose year-old recycling program will receive an award from the city of Philadelphia next week. Dezzi plans to present University Recycling Coordinator Albert Pallanti with a citation at a recycling convention next Thursday at Thomas Jefferson University. Pallanti said he will make a presentation of the University's program at the convention. Pallanti added the University recycles 45 to 50 tons of mixed paper each week, which is 25 percent of the total waste produced at the University. The University also recycles cans, but Pallanti said Physical Plant does not keep an accurate account of them. And just as the University receives an award for its extensive recycling program, an extension of the program is scheduled to begin next month. The University plans to start a program for disposing of glass bottles and plastics with receptacles first being placed outside Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, in the Graduate Towers and in the Towne Building. Pallanti said Physical Plant is also planning a pilot program for recycling laser toner cartridges used in the printers in administrative offices. Currently, about half of the cartridges are sold back to the vendor and recharged. The University instituted its recycling program last September, in response to a city law mandating that institutions recycle and to student criticisms that the University was dragging its feet. "There were a lot of people who really wanted a sincere recycling program but still had to push the issue through a lot of red tape," said College senior Colin Yost, former president of the Penn Environmental Recycling Group. "Penn got lucky in a sense, because it found [a recycling company] willing to take all of our paper products." Pallanti, who headed the administrative efforts to implement a recycling program last fall, credited student groups with pushing the administration forward and for publicizing the efforts to students. In the past few years, the Environmental Group and the Undergraduate Assembly Environmental and Recycling committee have pushed the administration to start and expand current programs. In fact, it was students who started the first environmental programs on campus. And both groups have presented the administration with proposals and lists of goals which Pallanti said the University has tried to meet. "I personally meet with both groups and they have a very positive influence," Pallanti said. "They assist in the basic follow-up with the students, advertise on Locust Walk . . . they're the publicity department of our program." UA committee Chairperson Jennifer Berrent said the group will continue with publicity this year, with a new campaign of "recycle, and tell your friends to recycle." "We want to go with the idea that if you tell two friends, and they tell two friends and they tell two friends . . . If you can get two of your friends to recycle it can make a huge impact," Berrent said. Yost said that while the University has come a long way, it still does not buy recycled products, which he said is an important part of any recycling program.

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