Recycle Mountain clutters campus to educate

Recycle Mountain was composed of 8,700 pounds of recyclable items this past Wednesday.

By Kathleen Lees

Published March 14, 2008

The sun hit the wall of trash centered on Lowry Mall, reflecting off a rainbow of beer cans, bottles of soda, and old sheets of paper. Forklifts carried in six bails of recycled trash, representing the amount MU students throw away every day, 8,700 pounds of recyclable items.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, this stack of recycled cans, bottles and old newspapers, called Recycle Mountain, took over Lowry Mall.

“This is one day’s worth of trash,” said Patrick Margherio, Sustain Mizzou Vice President of Projects. “That is what we’re trying to show here.”

Margherio pointed to one of the bails, encompassing thousands of crushed soda cans, illustrating a colorful array of Mountain Dew, Coca-Cola and Sprite leftovers.

“For instance, there are 30 cans per every pound in each bail of cans,” Margherio said. “Every day on Mizzou’s campus, 8,700 pounds of trash are not recycled. Only 1,919 tons of trash are recycled per year. We want to change that.”

Students walking back and forth to class stopped to study the blocks of garbage taking up the usually bare area. Besides the 15 Sustain Mizzou members present at the Recycle Mountain demonstration, 60 active Sustain Mizzou members regularly participate in environmental activities on campus through the organization. The group’s goal is to educate others about environmental issues while promoting environmental awareness.

Brian Weiss, a new member of Sustain Mizzou, attended to support the cause.

“They’re wasting so much good recyclable material that could be reused by everyone,” Weiss said, staring at the bails. “There would be so much less pollution by producers if we could all do our part by recycling. People need to realize that the recycling cans are right next to the garbage cans.”

Mizzou is one of the top 10 schools in recycling, Weiss said.

“We really do need to all recycle,” Weiss said. “People should be a little more concerned.”

Groups of people continued to walk by, some confused by the six bails of trash representing what students neglect to recycle every day on campus. A little girl ran from her bike to try and play on the mountain before her mother grabbed her by the arm, stopping her. A campus tour group stopped to show Recycle Mountain, as well as to introduce Sustain Mizzou.

Sustain Mizzou, a nonprofit organization run by volunteers from MU, has been doing this demonstration for years to raise awareness. Sustain Mizzou’s members stood in front of the blocks of trash in yellow T-shirts with black recycling signs on them, ready to educate people about this display.

Sustain Mizzou member Alysha Baratta said recycling should be an important part of each person’s daily routine.

“If everybody did their part and took that extra step to the recycling bin, literally, then it would make a huge difference,” Baratta said.

People walking to class and other places also commented on the need for communities to recycle.

“Recycling is so important and essential to every community,” senior human environmental science major Christina Helton said. “My apartment complex has an excellent recycling center. It’s really sad that people don’t recycle, especially seeing it on display like this. It’s so easy to put things in a bin.”

Signs on the bails of trash gave students statistics on how much of what they throw away could be recycled every day if they make the effort. A total of 32,000 pounds of trash is generated on campus every day, and 27 percent of the items we throw away in trash cans could be recycled. Over 4,000 tons of trash are thrown away per day.

Though the emphasis surrounding Sustain Mizzou that day focused on recycling, the organization is also involved in other local environmental activities.

“We participate in Stream Team every spring,” Sustain Mizzou member Lindsey Foat said. “You go to a stream in Missouri and do water quality tests. Sustain Mizzou also works with farmers to get organic produce and all the goods we harvest go to Missouri Food Bank. Our most known activity though is probably Tiger Tailgate, in which we hand out recycling bags before sports games, encouraging guests to recycle their beverages.”

At the end of the day, Recycle Mountain stood as monstrous and profound as ever, leaving an eerie message of what students contribute to landfills when they don’t recycle.

Margherio said last year, the weight of trash not recycled by MU students was relatively the same, as well as the number of bails. Every year, with each demonstration, Sustain Mizzou hopes to educate enough people that there is one less bail the next year.