Do you know where your bottles and cans go on campus?
You toss that soda can or water bottle into the recycling bin and you feel pretty good about doing your part for the Earth, right? But have you ever thought of where it goes after that?
The recycling bins that you see around campus are maintained and staffed by members of the LIU Post Recycling Program. These students work as Environmental Assistants. They are in charge of sorting and cleaning all of the bottles and cans that get tossed into their assigned recycling bins. They are then picked up by our Facilities Services Department and brought to a central location where they are stored until our carter, Jamaica Ash, comes to pick it up.
But did you know that New York is a “bottle bill” state and most cans and bottles have a 5 cent deposit on it that you can redeem at a grocery store like Pathmark? The Environmental Assistants separate these bottles from the rest of the non-deposit recyclables and these get taken to Pathmark and cashed in. All of the money that is raised from the LIU Post Recycling Program then goes into a scholarship fund.
Since 2010, the recycling program has been raising money for the scholarship. In April of 2011, the program awarded $250 to the winner of a Sustainable Essay Competition. In April of 2012, the program awarded $600 to the winner of a Sustainable Creative Expressions Contest. That was a result of recycling exactly 17,000 bottles and cans.
Please help the LIU Post Recycling Program beat last year’s amount by recycling all of your cans and bottles. After all, it might just be YOU that wins the scholarship this year in April of 2013. For any questions regarding the scholarship or the recycling program, you can contact Raheem Barnes at LIUPostRecycling@gmail.com
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