The Student Representative Council has been working with the facility management organization to implement a recycling trial on campus this fall. 

“We do minimal recycling right now. We want to push that to a new level,” said Doug Watson, building and grounds manager.

Before the semester-long trial started being seriously discussed, a trial week of recycling was held in the Joseph Fielding Smith Building and Eliza R. Snow Buildings, chosen for their traffic and size. 

Before the week-long trial started the SRC’s approach to recycling consisted of three phases–phase one: sort garbage, phase two: trial week (marketing), and phase three: analyze and present data. 

Based on the data gathered during the week-long trial, 54 percent of all the garbage on campus could be recycled, and during that week, about 20 percent of the recyclables were recycled. 

“The whole goal is a break-even program,” said Eric Conrad, physical facilities operations director. “If we can break even we can do this [recycling] campus wide.”

At this point in time it is uncertain if implementing recycling on campus will save or cost money.

“We will start a trial in the fall semester in select buildings. The goal is to get recycling on campus. More than white paper–we want to expand to include metals, plastic and glass,” said Steven Clark, a senior studying accounting. 

Steven Clark was the SRC vice president last semester and he is now an SRC committee member involved with the recycling project. 

“The more I have been involved with it, the more I have come to appreciate recycling,” Clark said.

The select buildings that will participate in the recycling trial during the Fall 2010 semester are the John W. Hart, Jacob Spori, Eliza R. Snow, Thomas E. Ricks, and Joseph Fielding Smith Buildings, the dorms and the David O. McKay Library.

  “A lot of students from places like California, Florida, Washington and other places that do more recycling, have come to us with input; they want to see more recycling on campus,” Clark said. 

Clark and other SRC members take the opinions of students to the administration, hold meetings together, discuss the opinions of the students, and set goals to implement changes. 

 “I think the coolest thing is seeing the small and big changes that are possible when the students share their voice and choose to get involved,” Clark said.

The SRC has goals for improvements in recycling; the voice of the student body was heard and in the fall, plans will be implemented and information will be gathered to measure results. 

“God made us stewards of the earth and we shouldn’t abuse that privilege,” said Helen Ontiveros, a sophomore studying music education. 

Helen said that she is from Oregon and recycling is a big thing. “[Recycling] is a way for us to take care of what God’s given us,” said Ontiveros.