According to the EPA, colleges and universities generate approximately 5% of the nation's total solid waste. Although institutions of higher education are ripe with student environmental clubs and organizations which strive to promote recycling and other eco-stewardship activities, the leap from advocacy to operational implementation has endured a sketchy history at many colleges for a variety of reasons. With a natural turnover rate among students promoting on-campus recycling, many collegiate resource recovery efforts across the country have enjoyed times of intense concern followed by periods of waning interest over the past three decades. Because of the transient nature of students, many recycling programs built over a span of years have fallen by the wayside in only a few semesters. When student interest recedes, continuity has been the major challenge facing many a fine student recycling program.

In California the 9 campuses of the University of California, along with the 23 campuses of the California State University system, have enjoyed exemptions from AB939 derived from their status as state agencies. Most of the 106 California Community Colleges have also claimed state or local exemptions when it comes to recycling. This has allowed a lot of University Administrators and Facility Managers to breath a collected sigh of relief. The Facilities Management Industry in higher education has witnessed very little change with regard to professional responsibilities over the past 40 years, as recycling issues emerged they became something very mysterious and a little frightening. This was especially true in the late 80's and early 90's, when collegiate models of resource recovery programs were almost nonexistent. When Administrators were 'forced' to address this rather new activity in institutional life, many ran out and signed expensive contracts with solid waste haulers and recycling vendors in an effort to 'make this issue go away', often without obtaining a complete understanding of what recycling is or could potentially mean to their institutions. As Bill McGowan, former CRRA Board Member once stated, "recycling is actually very easy, but there are some serious nuances involved."

While Colleges and Universities were instrumental in modernizing agriculture and other areas of our social infrastructure at the turn of this century, at the end of the century institutions of higher education in general have very much followed suit with municipal recycling practices without any serious investigation into possible alternatives. The cumulative effect of these actions has lent the voice of more than a few university administrators to a growing chorus which denounces recycling as prohibitively expensive. However this trend is changing rapidly on the west coast, largely because of the work conducted by the California Collegiate Recycling Council (CCRC).

Although comprised of only a handful of Environmental Program Career Professionals, CCRC has advanced the notion that colleges and universities (as small cities complete with housing districts, stores, theaters, and restaurants) can be the perfect vehicle to explore new approaches to municipal recycling issues. Turning the entire campus into an open air laboratory, many of the campuses within CCRC have enjoyed phenomenal success, proving that recycling need not be just a huge additional expenditure, but potentially a municipal economic asset. Utilizing innovative systems which hurdle many of the economic obstacles common to recycling efforts nationwide, CCRC is rapidly eradicating the myth that recycling is a costly, unaffordable proposition confronting both institutions and cities. Many of the solutions developed by CCRC Members may well find applications on a larger municipal scale. The recycling program models created at individual sites by CCRC Members aim to counter a growing backlash in print which claims society simply cannot afford programs which foster and enhance eco-stewardship. Through applied research on a scale rivaling many cities, CCRC is actively exploring methods to render the sustainable society an affordable environmental reality.

 Bill Stonecypher
Environmental Control Coordinator
Office of Environmental Control and Solid Waste/Recycling
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.
Charter Member - CCRC