Contact: Harriet Laird
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State student and administrative leaders are working to coordinate the university's current recycling efforts into a single cohesive plan.
Braxton Coombs, Student Association president, said that, while much is happening with campus recycling, he and other students would like to see a more comprehensive approach.
"If we could standardize our recycling program campus-wide, everyone would know more about how to be involved," Coombs said.
Following a meeting last week, officials at Mississippi's largest institution of higher learning began exploring the addition of an outside company to collect and recycle paper, cans, plastics, and newspaper "at a more reasonable cost," said Jim Jones, campus planning and sustainability director in the Office of the Vice President for Finance and Administration.
Jones said MSU has several major waste removal programs, including:
--The facilities management department that collects and transports paper products from 75 buildings to the City of Starkville for recycling;
--Residence Hall Association that collects and transports plastics from student housing units to the city;
--School of Architecture and landscape architecture department that have can and paper programs; and
--Property control department that collects electronic waste and transports it to Jackson.
Along with advertising and promoting existing projects, Jones said meeting participants also discussed athletic game-day activities and ways to better coordinate recycling from those events. Game-day involvement of the MSU Recycling Club was considered, as was the use of different-colored garbage bags that fans easily can identify for separate recyclable items.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information on campus recycling plans, contact Jones at 662-325-5557 or Coombs at 325-3917.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.