Homework #4

How green is our campus??

Well unfortunately I have to say that RCC is really not the best campus when is comes to being sustainable/environmentally friendly. Most (not all) of our plants on campus are not native and require a lot more watering because of this. Also our campus does not recycle, I know this may comes as a shock to most people in this day in age where recycling is extremely popular but there you have it. All of the campus recycling (with the exception of paper from the offices and some teachers) is actually done by the Student Sustainability Collective,

http://rccsustainability.com/author/rccsustainability/

this also means that any recycling bins you may find on campus were put there because of this club as well.  And until very recently RCC did not offer any rewards to those students who wanted to use there own mugs, reusable water bottles, etc. Even though they now do offer a slight discount if you use your own mug for coffee or tea, there is a lot more they could do.
In terms of what other campuses have done we are far behind! Cal State Channel Islands (http://www.csuci.edu/sustainability/ )for example has a great recycling program! Plus because they are so close to local farms most of their produce, coffee, and tea is locally grown. They have days where you can get free food if you ride your bike to school, and they have just a generally just more favorable outlook as a whole on sustainability. They also have a sustainability club that helps to further help the campus become even more environmentally friendly, and they like our club at RCC, are also trying to create a community garden.
I think the biggest factor that I have mentioned for RCC is the recycling problem. While I enjoying helping to do the recycling on campus, I have to admit that the few people who regularly show up are just not enough. A handful of people can not recycle an entire campus on their own! The hope has always been that RCC officials would see how profitable it is for our club and then realize how important it is for the campus, so far that has not happened. In order for this to happen RCC needs to install permanent recycle cans, ideally one for every trash can that way people always have the option. Then they should make it a part of someones job, maybe the custodians, to go through and collect the recycles when the cans are full. The campus could easily makes hundreds every week just by collecting and turning in all the bottles, cans, and miscellaneous recycles. They could also make a campaign to promote recycling on campus to make students aware.
I hope one day we will see this actually happen! Till then, get your gloves on and meet us by the cafeteria and get ready to sort some recyclables!