The ACU Environmental Society wants to let students know the club is on campus and encouraging environmentally friendly practices like recycling.
The club is sponsoring a series of events to encourage greener lifestyles. They will host a walk celebrating Recycling Day and take a trip to a conference to learn about sustainability and how campus awareness can be raised.
Rebecca Dial, sophomore political science and history major from South Carolina, is the club treasurer. She said one of the club’s main goals this year is to increase the availability and convenience of recycling on campus.
“It frustrates me that ACU does not have more recycling areas, only the one in the Campus Center,” Dial said. “People have to take time to take their items there. It should not be this way; we need recycling centers in the dorms and other buildings.”
Dial said the massive amounts of plastic bottles thrown away on campus are an example of a practice that the ACU community needs to change.
“I see so many plastic bottles thrown away each day. It is a ridiculous number and not environmentally friendly,” Dial said.
ACU did a pilot recycling program last year, but it hasn’t gone any further. Some of the students are collaborating within their dorms to increase recycling opportunities, but a wider push is needed to get something done, Dial said.
Samantha Futrell, sophomore environmental science major from San Angelo and club president, said recycling must be easy for students to participate.
“If you want to recycle, you have to go out of your way. Students need to raise their voices to make awareness of the situation. Some ACU faculty and staff are interested in recycling, but we need more to participate,” Futrell said.
Eyrah Quashie, junior advertising and public relations major from The Colony, is the social coordinator for the club. She agrees with Dial and Futrell, saying ACU needs more recycling opportunities.
“ACU is so into technology but not into recycling,” Quashie said. “We want to work with faculty and staff to get it in our buildings.”
The club also hopes to see vending machines with motion sensors instead of those that use a lot of energy and audits on buildings to measure their energy use levels. The club eventually hopes to report on how the buildings on campus can be more environmentally friendly.
