Environmental Impacts at Stonehill College
By David Pyrdol
Students at Stonehill College are worried about recycling and sustainability on campus.
Andrew Meawad, a Stonehill student, got involved with keeping the Stonehill campus clean on Earth Day as a freshman.
“There was a project for cleaning up trash where we went outside for Earth Day. It was very nice,” Meawad said.
Meawad said sometimes he would find a floating cup in the ponds at Stonehill.
‘Students for Environmental Action’ (SEA) prioritizes keeping a clean and healthy campus with events for environmental awareness and sustainability at Stonehill.
Brayden Lapradea, another Stonehill student, said Stonehill utilizes this program for sustainability efforts.
“’Students for Environmental Action’ typically had a big program with recycling and compost,” Lapradea said.
‘Break Free from Plastic’ (BFFP) focuses on eliminating single-use plastics on campus, with plans on reducing plastic waste with Stonehill’s facilities in the future.
Cheryl Schnitzer, chair of the Environmental Stewardship Council at Stonehill, said the council helps with sustainability efforts.
“The idea is to bring people together to make environmental sustainability efforts to keep progressing them on campus. We all are stewards of our campus, and it should be treated well, and that we leave it better than when we came,” Schnitzer said.
Colleges in the United States with recycling programs are in the minority.
One study by Resource Recycling Systems found the average recycling rate for universities is 24%.
About half of the schools in the sample had zero waste efforts on campus, the study found.
Lapradea said he finds trash on campus every day, some of it recyclable.
“Sometimes I see different beer bottles, then actually just trash around campus really every day,” Lapradea said.
Joshua Beauregard, another Stonehill student, said it’s easy to keep the campus clean.
“I generally don’t really eat outside, so it’s not so hard for me to keep the environment clean,” Beauregard said.
One person said only a few students have bad environmental habits on campus.
“I think those people definitely have a bad habit when it comes to it, but I think it’s a very select few in the (Stonehill) population,” said Christian Gurney, a Stonehill student.
Beauregard said it’s common to see trash in Stonehill’s buildings.
“Sometimes I’ll see (trash) inside the buildings, but that’s to be expected,” Beauregard said.
Gurney said Stonehill should implement incentives to promote college cleanup.
“Say they do a trash pick-up every other week, and every time you go, you get a stamp, and every seven times, you get free Gigi’s,” Gurney said.
Meawad said Stonehill can benefit from more environmental programs and events.
“There could be more vocalization about events like that and cleaning overall,” Meawad said.
Gurney said it would be difficult for Stonehill to handle trash collection efficiently.
“That would be difficult for the school to handle just because there’s so many people coming from the library,” Gurney said.
Schnitzer said it’s unfortunate when people litter on campus.
“It’s disheartening. It makes me feel bad that there’s litter on the ground in the first place. I wish that each of us could take responsibilities for our own trash,” Schnitzer said.
References:
RRS Study:
Stonehill College Students Interviewed:
Joshua Beauregard
Christian Gurney
Brayden Lapradea
Andrew Meawad
Professor Interviewed:
Cheryl Schnitzer
Comments
Post a Comment