A Langara student tosses an orange peel into the new three-stream recycling bin that sits just outside of the south entrance to the Library. It is the first of several new bins that will be added to outdoor locations around campus. NATHAN DUREC PHOTO Recycling is made easier College waiting till September to promote new outdoor bins ByJOSHUA REY angara College is rolling out new three-stream recy- cling bins outdoors over the next few months, with the first one already installed next to the library’s south entrance. The college just isn’t telling anybody about it yet. ‘The first outdoor bin, which has three compartments for recycling, waste and compost, is located outside the south entrance of the Library. Additional bins will be added later this year. In an email, Dwayne Doornbosch, director of facilities, said this is phase two of a plan to make the college more sustainable, having already upgraded the indoor recycling bins. The college produces over 750 pounds of waste every day, accord- ing to a 2013 waste study. Since then, Langara has been working to become a zero-waste institution under the Sustainability Program. “More garbage bins will be switched to recycling stations in the coming months,” Doornbosch said. “The locations are yet to be decided.” The college plans to wait until September 2019 to place signage and educate students and staff. Doornbosch said the college wants to get the maximum number of new students to be aware of the bins. “September is impactful because of the number of new students,” Doornbosch said. Facilities manager Raymond Yeung said in an email that educa- tion and signage will be important for the bins. “The signage is constantly being reviewed to help sorting be easier for users and the education component will help volunteers engage students in sorting situations, likely to be restarted in September,” Yeung said. Some at Langara, like engineer- ing student Shimon Takagi, saw the value of the outdoor bins, but were unaware of its placement on campus. “People dont know where certain trash goes,” Takagi said. Computer science student Behbod Babai was less enthusiastic. “There’s already plenty of recycling inside,” Babai said. Babai suggested that post- ers would be the best way to reach students about the new bins. Doornbosch said educating people about the bin shouldn't be required for them to be used. “It should speak for itself,” Doorn- bosch said. New web ortal coming Existing registration system has outlived its usefulness, says Langara College By LIAM HILL-ALLAN angara’s plan to update its two-decade old registration system cannot come soon enough for some students and staff. The current system, known as Banner, was implemented in 1996. It is no longer able to meet new and demanding expectations. Langara has announced plans to upgrade to a new school-wide system, Workday@Langara, over the next three years. While specific changes are not yet publicized, the main goals for the new system include improved communication, an easier-to-use user interface and full cloud integration. In an email to The Voice, the Work- day@Langara team said the new system will improve many aspects, including communication and mobile compatibility. Rey Buenaventura, Langara asso- ciate registrar, said in an email that while the Banner system has worked well, the college is making efforts to keep up with modern technology. “As technology has improved over the years, the college has sought to enhance the student information system,” Buenaventura said. “[Lang- ara] has decided to progress to cloud technology for our future.” The implementation of Work- day@Langara is part of the college’s 2020 Strategic Plan,. Even though there is no informa- tion on what the new system will provide, students and faculty are beginning a wish list. Abhineet Dhillon, a Lang- ara health sciences student, said he thinks the new system should automatically assign courses to the students who have to take them. Keyboards are filthier th Bathrooms cleaned multiple times a day, computers arent By KIM LAU ccording to a 2016 U.S. study, computer keyboards are over 0,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat. And while the toilets at Lang- ara are cleaned two to three times a day, the same cannot be said of the college’s lab computers. Ina study by Oregon-based CBT Nuggets, an IT training company, they found that keyboards contain over 3.5 million bacteria per square inch, while over the same surface area, the average toilet seat has 172 bacteria. This can include harmful bacteria such as E. coli and streptococcus. Gabriel Black, a second-year UBC Annabelle Ropisan cleans a keyboard in a Langara computer lab. Kit7i4U PHOTO medical student who works in Lang- ara’s health services, said the study’s findings did not surprise him. “Keyboards do have a lot of bacte- ria and germs on them. When you're typing on the keyboard and also eating food at the same time, that’s a big way that you can end up swal- lowing bacteria that may cause some sort of gastrointestinal upset later down the line and other problems related to that,” Black said. According to the U.K.’s health agency NHS, bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, can survive weeks in the open. na toilet seat Viruses such as the norovirus can also remain infectious for weeks. This means transfer between different computer users in a communal setting is possible. Most students wash their hands after using the washroom, not neces- sarily after typing at a computer. Robert Axworthy, a business student, said the problem is made worse by hundreds of students shar- ing campus computers. “It is kind of terrifying,” he said. “The keyboards we have at school that everybody shares, I’m probably sure they're even more dirty than the average keyboard.” Black said the single cheapest effective way is to clean your hands with a bar of soap and a sink, instead of hand sanitizer, which is slightly more expensive. However, not all bacteria is bad. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, too much washing can strip away bacteria essential for pathogen protection. Hand sanitizer is installed around campus and in some computer labs for students and staff to use. The number of bacteria found on the average electronic badge. The number of bacteria found on the surface of a personal smartphone. The number of bacteria found on a normal ballpoint or click pen. The amount of bacteria found on paper money. All numbers are in per square inch. SOURCE: CBTNUGGETS.COM