NEED help revising PLEASE!

You hear the clattering every day. A piece of paper being crinkled, a glass bottle being shattered, a plastic bag being twisted and twisted just for the fun of it. Swish!! And there is goes. Wait. . . It’s in the wrong can. Can you blame them? One day at the University of South Florida I asked “ Sir may I ask why it is you threw that bottle into that trash can”. The other student politely answers with “Well there are no recycling bins anywhere in the residence halls” with an exaggeration. If we cannot appropriately throw our trash what is going to happen to our school, homes, and the world. Like Dr. Hanna says “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” (Hanna 1) for the betterment of our community. And for the betterment of global warming. Yes there are good things about recycling and we already know that. The question is, do we know if there is anything bad about recycling?

Many people may think its easy to just throw items into the recycling bin. But our opposing side Cernansky says its not that easy. You can throw all kinds of glass, metal, and paper in recycling bins but the one item you need to worry about is plastic. Cernansky says “6.8 percent of the total plastic used in the U.S. cannot be recycled”. The magazine Discover actually lets you know what plastic is categorized in by numbers. Each number made with a different material and because of the material being used in certain products it is not recyclable. According to Discover “ plastic sorting is tedious and labor intensive. . . Its to dangerous for plastic to be used” (Cernansky 3). It is understandable for someone to think that way. But is that what we want to really do? If we get to lazy and do not want to recycle because it is to hard then we would rather die. And if we recycle everything great then we have to work harder in order to make some difference.

USF likes to think of themselves as doing enough for the environment. They provide the students with bins in the food courts, and some reusable items in the dining halls. This would of course include the “reusable To-Go containers, and provide reusable and recyclable cups for discounted fountain beverage purchases. . . Reusable bags to transport food purchases and reusable tableware is encouraged”(Tougas 2) and this is according to USF staff. Not only does USF provide us with these items but they provide us with a program called R.O.S.E. in which people donate supplies of all sorts and they recycle them by giving them away to students who need them on campus, and its all free of charge. Not enough but at least they are trying to do something.

As more items are made everyday the world becomes full of trash. Some more than able to handle. It is understandable to think that you are doing a lot by doing a little, after all a little is better than nothing. There are hundreds of items that need to be recycled and USF seems to think that they are doing all they can do. According to USF “ Over 2000 recycling containers for paper have been distributed on campus. . .”(Tougas 2).

Many recycling problems have not been solved in our USF Tampa campus. Sharon Hanna writes in her scholarly journal “ The USF student Environmental association has been working on establishing aluminum can recycling in the residence halls. They have secured a private sector partner-Tampa Bay Recycling- to donate the bins. There still is no results as to this establishment. USF says there are many around campus yet we see so little of them. Why is this? Jaclyn DeVore says “ Currently, there are no recycling bins in the dorms. . .“ USF has a responsibility to withhold. The colors ( green and gold) are not just colors and words but actions as well. Green is nature, its recycling and we as USF cannot say “ we are green. . .”

The world around us tries to be green. But are we really trying? How can someone really be green? You can begin this small project by recycling your paper, plastic, aluminum, and glass. Find a recycling bin and put your items there. You can even buy reusable green bags. Neil Pepi says “ had students walking around drinking out of a glass peanut butter jars! If your not ready to drink out of a jar, how about reusing the plastic bottle of water you bought the other day instead of throwing it out” ( Pepi 2). The biggest impact someone like myself can do to make this happen is not easy. First talking to housing officials, and signing petitions is very important. Another thing is talking to higher officials that could help the school and encourage them to recycle better.

These higher officials would be first one of Tampa’s representatives Ronda Storms. Second would be USF housing and residential education dean, Ana Hernandez. Why these people? Well they can both make a difference in this situation. An example of difference would be if, A student would go to someone and told them they wanted to increase the recycling options, would they really pay attention? Or would they just think of it as another student who just wont stop whining? Well not will Storms and Hernandez. As dean of housing and residential education Hernandez has a say in how the halls are going to be run. It is understood that they want the recycling but cost limits them. That is where Storms would come in, as a senator she could talk to a list of people and convince them to give us what we need. These things mainly being recycling bins. They just need a good understanding of what exactly is going on at the University of South Florida. They need an explanation of what we need in order to help USF be a greener school.

As the world goes round, why not stop and think what you can do to help it? Do everything in your power to help USF become a better, greener place. As Sara Hendricks says, “ It is time for the USF campus to look seriously into the economic benefits of increasing environmental sustainability,” So work together and sooner or later everyone will be greener by the moment.