Last week Loyola University welcomed a new feature to campus: updated recycling bins.

Loyola community members have noticed the subtle changes to popular campus locations, marked by the addition of the brown disposal containers.

The University Campus Sustainability Committee decided on the change about a year ago and jump-started the implementation through university funding and funds from Sodexo and the Center for Environmental Communication. According to Director for Environmental Communication Bob Thomas, 12 new bins were placed across campus Sept. 1, and another 8-10 will be installed at a later date.

Loyola’s Jesuit traditions and values convey respect for sustainability and the environment. Therefore, recycling is not a new concept to the university. Prior to placement of the new bins, bright blue trashcan-like recycling bins held spots around campus. Some of these bins can still be found in places such as the parking garages. So why would the university need new recycling containers?

“We’re always trying to make the place look better for the student environment and the teaching environment,” Thomas said. “We realized that we needed something functional, educational.”

Not only did the University Campus Sustainability Committee opt for a more uniform look for recycling bins, they also strategically placed them throughout campus.

“We put them in prominent places, like right where you walk into Monroe,” Thomas said. “We’re not going to put them on every floor of every building because that would take so much time to empty … We want them full, but we want people—like in Bobet—to bring their recyclables down when they’re leaving and drop them in there when they are walking out.”

Thomas said installing new bins had been under consideration for years, but the University Campus Sustainability Committee decided to wait until the university completed various campus construction projects.

“We really had talked about it for several years, and we knew that we were going to do it,” he said. “But Monroe was under construction and then the dorms were all scaffolded. And there were all kinds of stuff going on around campus.”

Student responses to the change have been mixed.

“It’s a very progressive change,” Andres Cascante, music senior, said. “I’d like to see this more around campus. I think it’s a step forward.”

Some students, however, disagreed with the decision to purchase new recycling bins.

“I think that the money spent on those could have probably been spent in more effective ways,” Jordan Thibodeaux, history sophomore, said. “We could have spent that money on more effective recycling programs.”

Despite mixed reviews, the new recycling bins are ready for student and faculty use.