Recycling should be the norm

When people come to my room, one of the first things they say is, "Meredith, it's freezing in here." I'm not an Eskimo, I just don't turn on the heat in my dorm room. It's not intended to make my room into a meat locker, but I've never understood why I should artificially heat my room when I can put on more clothing instead.I don't consider myself an environmentalist by any means. I just think it makes more sense, both economically and practically, to layer clothing, rather than crank up the heat. The same goes with recycling. Despite some individuals' beliefs that recycling doesn't really do any good, save any energy or that one person's efforts won't make a difference, what's the harm in trying?

Before I came to DePauw, recycling was normal for me. My small, 500-person town filled a recycling trailer each week. If you didn't recycle before Sunday, you had to stomp the cardboard down to fit it into the trailer. When I came here, I was shocked and disappointed to find people throwing away recyclables while I was excited to finally be able to recycle my yogurt cups. Last year, when dining services began composting, I became even more bummed when I saw people putting pizza boxes in the compost bin instead of their vegetables.

I'm not even a member of the DePauw Environmental Club. I just do what makes sense. One example of this is that most of my clothing and my shoes come from eBay or Goodwill. My purchases range from Teva and Aldo shoes to Lacoste sweaters. I paid fifteen, eight, and five dollars for them, respectively. Just because someone has worn them before doesn't mean they are any less functional or are any less "fashionable."

I suppose I should also mention reduction. I notice a lot on campus that could be changed. I wish that the Hub and the Den had reusable to-go containers. I hate using the to-go containers they have now, but some days, I just don't have the time to eat there. I wish our treadmills generated energy to power Lily when we used them, to reduce the building's net energy consumption.

Please don't think I'm an environmental hippie or anything; I just grew up in a community where reducing, reusing and recycling were and still are the norm, not something difficult or heroic. We aren't perfect by any means, but we certainly can try. Recently, my sister told me that my high school Spanish teacher started to collect recyclables and take them to a recycling center because my school took away its recycling trailer. This is the kind of small practice that will preserve our world.

DePauw, I'm asking you to do the same. The individual does matter and so does each bottle of water you don't drink, each banana peel you actually compost and each beer can you recycle. We're a campus who loves trying to change the world, so start small. Even try with this newspaper; recycle it when you're done.



-McGrady is a junior from Hillsboro, Ind., and is majoring in anthropology. She is special projects editor for The DePauw. opinion@thedepauw.com