Pol Le, News Editor—
Denison hasn’t placed a pause on all recycling, just plastic recycling. At first, this sounds counterintuitive. Plastic has been marketed as a recyclable product for decades. However, based on research provided by the Sustainability Committee, the recycling of plastic has always been a marketing tactic from industry groups and big corporations to persuade consumers to continue using single-use plastic goods.
Charlotte Mayers ‘26, the representative of the Campus Sustainability Committee, said, “Plastic recycling has never really worked. Plastic can only be recycled once or twice. It also becomes more toxic when you recycle it.”
According to CBS News, only 5% of plastic is recycled, while the other portion ends up in landfills. Moreover, the recycling process itself is environmentally detrimental for its heavy use of toxic chemicals, which also have adverse effects on workers. Many other corporations such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever, and Nestle mislead the public about the recyclability of plastic even when their reports show that plastic cannot be effectively recycled.
In light of this problem, Micheal Supp, the director of facilities operations, and Jeremy King, the director of sustainability, decided to pause all plastic recycling on campus starting October 31. For Denison, it is expensive to collect plastic products, sort them out into different types of plastics, and send them to the recycling factories where they may be transported again to the landfill.
Many students were unaware of this new policy. For Maya Swarup ‘24, it was confusing when she read the letter, saying, “I thought Denison [stopped] recycling.”
Another student, Kiet Nguyen ‘25, said that recycling signage on campus was obscure anyway, and he didn’t think a lot of the students recycled.
“I noticed different signs on the trash bins inside Curtis and Huffman, but normally I would throw the trash into the closest bins. Other than compost bins, I don’t see any difference in those signs,” said Nguyen.
When asked about single-use plastic, Nguyen said, “I use plastic spoons and forks when I eat at Slayter, plastic cups at Common Grounds. I think it will be pretty tough to replace them because it’s just so convenient.”
Mayers hoped that the Campus Sustainability Committee would be able to come up with actions to reduce single-use plastic in the near future. The committee will work directly with Bon Appétit manager, Adam Poiling, to consider the consumption of these items.
In the meantime, they want to focus on recycling four useful materials: paper, glass, cardboard, and aluminum cans.
“[Focusing] our efforts on recycling these should decrease contamination in our recycling and hopefully increase participation once students catch on to the new and simpler system,” said Mayers.