Loyola is going green. With the support of the Loyola University Community Action Program, Loyola’s administration and biology instructor Kathy Anzelmo, students will soon see recycling bins covering the campus. The familiar blue bins will appear in every building on campus to collect paper, magazines, newspapers and aluminum.
The project is still in the planning process, but should be in full swing by early February. LUCAP will have a table set up in front of the Danna Center for one week in February to educate students about what gets recycled and hand out brochures listing specific locations of the bins.
This is the first time the recycling program will return to Loyola since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.
Anzelmo first put her recycling plan into action almost 40 years ago when she started recycling programs at local schools.
“I want the students to be educated about the benefits of recycling. After Katrina, it was in my heart to do more than just help and educate. I needed to actually do it,” Anzelmo said.
With support from the administration and LUCAP, Anzelmo kicked her recycling plan for Loyola into gear. She asked for the opinion of the environmental studies faculty in early November and then headed to LUCAP.
LUCAP adviser Rick Yelton and the students of LUCAP were thrilled to help with the project. They hope to have a full-scale recycling program on campus within months.
“BFI dropped recycling and it has been tough financially to have a recycling program here on campus,” Yelton said. The funds may be difficult to gather, but Anzelmo has a plan.
“We are starting the program with a very small budget that comes from donations and an administrative supplement,” she said. “We will make fifteen dollars for every ton that we recycle which will go into a newly established recycling fund. The fund will help to pay for the nearly 70 bins that will cover campus by later this semester,” Anzelmo said.
Robert A. Thomas, ecology professor and interim director of the School of Mass Communication, believes that we have become a “throw-away” society, and is very excited about the upcoming recycling program.
“We should not waste resources,” Thomas said.
“No individual will change the world with recycling, but each person can help turn their waste into other products that can be repaired and reused.” Those products will be collected not only on the main campus, but the Broadway campus as well.
Anzelmo admits that she is not alone in the birth of this project.
“I am so grateful to have the full support of the administration as well as the backing of Ann Moss and David Huffman in Physical Plant. They have been so helpful and I really look forward to making this a long-term project for the university.”
Katy Bodin can be reached at [email protected].
