As part of my Inspire Environmental Internship, I audited the buildings on campus to see:

 

1. how many plastic water bottles were disposed in the bins

2. whether there were any recycling bins in the building

3. whether or not the building had accessible drinking water

 

The building that came in with the highest number of plastic bottles was Clif Tucker, and not surprisingly, they were all thrown in the trash, since there are no recycling bins there either. The tap water in Clif Tucker is also not safe for drinking (as signs over the sinks show).

 

With the implementation of a recycling bin in each building as well as a water cooler/fountain in Clif Tucker, we could reduce a lot of unnecessary waste, which is great for the environment and the university!

 

I would like for the university to provide:

 

• a water fountain in Clif Tucker that has a bottle fill station to allow staff and students to use their own water bottle and reduce single use plastic bottles

 

• at least one recycling bin inside each main building that doesn’t already have one (at the time of audits, this was Old Hall, Clif Tucker, Arts, and 1822)