issues & id@as_ wrorcaramexenna THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2012 7 A new recy- cling centre on campus promises to make waste removal more effi- cient. Sustainability on campus Being kind to the environment ts vital to a better tomorrow. Here, we take a look at what has been done at Langara to make our College more green. Campus recycling centre unveiled this week By BRANDON KOSTINUK Langara’s long-awaited recycling de- pot will be unveiled this week in an ef- fort to improve the college’s long-term sustainability efforts. Located in the college’s service yard, the recycling facility will house a num- ber of bins to help store recyclable ma- terials like plastic bottles, pop tins and cardboard. “We're just starting, we’ve built a housing that’s basically a storage facil- ity,” said Wendy Lannard, facilities di- rector at Langara. “Langara is committed to sustain- ability [and] ... for us to take a step further, we intended to find one central location to do our recycling.” Recycling already takes place here, said Lannard, but recycled materials are currently stored in various storage rooms around campus, so a central storage facility is the next logical step for the college’s budding sustainability program. But construction of the facility hasn’t come without its bumps and bruises, says Gilberto Chang, site superinten- dent for Pax Construction Ltd., the company contracted to complete the job. Unexpected delays pushed the facili- ty’s completion date back about two weeks, said Chang, but it should be op- erational within the week. What this means for students, well, according to Lannard, it’s too early to tell. As for student involvement, “We’re not there yet, but we certainly hope to get students involved in the future, per- haps by 2018,” said Lannard. But she admits it’s too early to spec- ulate on what this would entail. Frank Williams, co-ordinator of en- vironmental studies at Langara, also commented on the recycling program, Frank Williams, co-ordinator for the environmental studies program, displays the campus compost bins. Still room to grow for green-oriented goals Five sustainibility initiatives are helping the school stay conscious when making envi- ronmental decisions; however, according to staff, there is still a long way to go. By BRONWYN SCOTT Although Langara has made some sustainability efforts to date, the Col- lege acknowledges that more can be done to make the campus greener. There are five sustainability initia- tives that the school is moving towards which are listed on the Langara web- site. According to the site, these initia- tives are as follows: moving towards 100 per cent paper recycling, reducing paper usage, building new structures to meet the highest standards in envi- ronmental design and energy efficien- cy, encouraging greener transportation and minimizing energy consumption. So far, the school has only made a small dent in fulfilling these goals. Currently the Students’ Union Build- ing, C-building and library meet the gold standard requirements in the Leadership in Energy and Environ- mental Design (LEED) rating system, which is a point rating system that takes things like energy and water ef- ficiency into account to measure how environmentally friendly buildings are. Gold is the second highest rating on the LEED scale, and upgrades to the B- building are currently underway to meet these standards. In the area of recycling, Frank Wil- liams, coordinator for the environmen- tal studies program, explained Langara has different bins for garbage, refund- able recyclables and paper products. To encourage use of the bins, money from properly disposing refundable containers fund student bursaries; however, the cost of separating gar- bage from recycling also comes from that cache. “It’s always more complicated than you think,” said Williams. Langara has also maintained a com- post on-site for over ten years for bio- degradable dishware, cutlery and con- tainers from the cafeteria. To encourage alternative and sus- tainable ways of transportation, multi- ple bike racks on campus are meant to encourage students to cycle. More are added almost every year to meet demand, said Williams. Even the “wetlands,” as he termed the wild zone at the front of campus featuring a pond and tall grasses, pro- motes sustainability by saving the school on maintenance costs. “The biggest thing has always been cost,” he said. Despite these efforts, a recent de- cline in interest has some faculty dis- heartened. “To tell the truth, a lack of progress has discouraged a number of us,” said Williams in an email statement. “Some of our more active members have re- tired.” BRONWYN SCOTT photo FIVE WAYS 10 GET GREENER (& save $$$) 1 Walk or bike to school instead of driving. (Bonus: no more dealing with public transit). 2 Recycle your electronics (old cell phones, TVs, etc) instead of throwing them in the trash. 3 A massive amount of energy is used in meat production. Go meatless at least one day/ week. 4 Borrow books instead of buying. 5 Wash your clothes in cold water. 85% of the energy in washing clothes goes into heating the water. saying students should be reminded that recycling proceeds do go directly into student bursaries. With the expanded storing capacity, Langara students could potentially see a larger pool of funds being directed into bursaries. How much depends on the recycling habits of staff and students. “The biggest problem is contamina- tion,” added Williams. “People throwing burgers in with the plastic bottles costs us money.” The underlying message: recycle with good conscience Waterfillz Statistics unclear Waterfillz Kiosks are convenient, but have they really been saving the en- vironment as promised? By STEVEN CHUA Waterfillz Kiosks boast they are wa- ter without waste, but it’s unclear how many plastic bottles they are saving from the landfill. The Kiosks, which automatically re- fill bottles with filtered water, are sup- posed to encourage students to bring reusable containers and reduce waste. The first device was installed in the cafeteria last February; since then, two more have been installed on campus. Electronic number displays on each device count how many bottles they save from being thrown away. The figures increase every time they’re used. “We do not have an accurate num- ber on how many bottles we have saved with this initiative, but saving bottles was certainly the — objective,” said Patricia Baker, manager of build- ing operations at Langara. Jordan Lyons, a second-year busi- ness student, thinks the convenience should encourage more people to bring their reusable bottles. “Tt takes twice as long to fill up a wa- ter bottle using just a normal water fountain,” said Lyons. “It'll make people want to use it more.” Hussein Mohaidly, a second-year computer science student, isn’t as opti- mistic. “I don’t think it’s making a big difference. Most people that go to fill up their water bottles from here use plas- tic water bottles from outside,” said Mohaidly. “Naturally, when they’re done, what’re they gonna do? They’re proba- bly going to throw them out anyway.” Jeff de Leo, a first-year general stud- ies student, was asked if he felt the Ki- osk counters are accurate. “T definitely think it’s not, because I think’s it’s gone up a couple numbers when I filled up.” When asked about this issue, Baker said it’s because the machines are cali- brated to measure smaller bottles of water.