To the Editor:
With all of the hype on campus lately about making WCU a “greener” campus, I was shocked to find out recently that recycling on South Campus is nonexistent. The placement of an unmarked blue dumpster alongside the regular beige one seems to be the only effort the university has made to bring recycling to South Campus.
From my room, I have a bird’s eye view of the two dumpsters. Their contents look identical, and when the trash truck comes, I’ve seen them dump both dumpsters into the same truck.
South Campus has about 1,028 residents in 257 units equipped with kitchens. Many residents cook for themselves, resulting in a considerable amount of waste from food and beverage packaging. According to dumpandrun.org, the average college student produces 640 pounds of solid waste each year, on average about 40 percent of which is recyclable. For South Campus, this translates into 6.3 tons of waste per week, 2.5 tons of which could be sent to a recycling facility instead of the Lanchester landfill.
Recyclables could easily be separated within the apartment into a recycling bin provided in each unit. If the bins are conveniently located within every apartment along with a quick guide on how and what to recycle, residents will be much more likely to participate.
In order for the green movement at WCU to be taken seriously and make a real change, we need to first demand that recycling receptacles actually exist on every part of campus.
Kristin Tovaas
Third-year Student
To The Editor:
Hubert H. Humphrey said, “The moral test of government is how it treats those who?are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.”??By that measure, Pennsylvania is failing. Time and money are running out for the 24,000 people depending on the Commonwealth’s mental health & mental retardation system. For decades, our state government failed to adequately fund the system, resulting in a serious lack in quality of care.??Annual state-funded COLAs (cost-of-living adjustments) are needed to offset inflation. This year’s proposed state budget again lacks a COLA for community mental retardation services.??Republican State Representative George Kenney introduced legislation that would require a COLA in the state budget every year. All state representatives have been asked to cosponsor.??So far only about one-quarter of the legislature have signed on. Without more representatives’ signatures, this bill will not pass. A similar bill was vetoed by Governor Rendell in 2006.??I’m asking all of your readers to please take a stand for their neighbors who live with disabilities, and urge their representatives to make people with intellectual disabilities a budget priority in 2008.?They can also call the Governor’s Office at 1-717-787-2500, and urge Governor Rendell to support COLA legislation. Readers can also visit our Web site-www.marcpa.org- for more information on the challenges people with mental disabilities face in Pennsylvania.?Thank you for publishing this letter.??
Paul Stengle?
Executive Director of the Arc of Montgomery County?