2008 Woodie Awards
Is UIC going green?
Irene Resendiz
Issue date: 10/6/08 Section: Opinions
I honestly couldn't tell, what with all the stray paper floating around campus and jamming up the escalator in SCE for publicity's sake. Sure, UIC has a bookstore that features a sustainability section and new recycling bins, and the building that the University is currently constructing promises to be "green," but I still see litter lying just about everywhere on campus.
Loose toilet paper roams free and wild in the bathroom stalls and I fear that the escalators in SCE are going to get jammed one day by the number of advertisements that are passed out and only seconds later dropped on the floor in front of it.
(The only way to rid ourselves of this litter is to remember that there are recycle bins and to not accept advertisements from solicitors.)
The Bookstore's sustainability section is a good start in promoting the "greener" lifestyle. It's small, but offers a wide variety of products - most notably notebooks and computer paper from Environotes. It is definitely a step in the right direction. By offering environmentally safe products, it gives students a chance to purchase items that help the environment.
Unfortunately, it is often very difficult to find products that are less damaging to the environment because no store really carries them. Not to mention that many environmentally safe products can be quite expensive. The environment is losing its case in the stores where there are not many earth-friendly products - and even if they did offer such products, they might be out of your price range. At least UIC is doing something to help the environment with these affordable products.
Furthermore, the University does have recycle bins (a lot of them, in fact); they are helping UIC's students move in a greener direction. Alas some advertisers and students are not.
It's a simple and sometimes useful tactic: leave the pieces of paper lying around "inconspicuously" in order to attract the attention of students/potential customers. People leave these advertisements in bathroom stalls or on the tables in the Inner Circle.
Honestly it all just becomes paper waste: much of the time these ads do not leave their drop-off location. They are still there on the table (or pushed off to the floor) or in the bathroom.
It's not just the advertisers who create this paper waste - it is also the students who very often just take the paper (instead of denying one) and wait until they reach the escalator to drop the advertisement on the floor. Students should at least wait until they reach a recycle bin to throw out the advertisements and miscellaneous papers that they receive.
Fortunately, many students are doing well on this front and UIC helps by having so many recycle bins in and around the school. Yet, it's not enough. If we really want to help on the green front then we'll remember do our part recycle and stop accepting advertisements.
Loose toilet paper roams free and wild in the bathroom stalls and I fear that the escalators in SCE are going to get jammed one day by the number of advertisements that are passed out and only seconds later dropped on the floor in front of it.
(The only way to rid ourselves of this litter is to remember that there are recycle bins and to not accept advertisements from solicitors.)
The Bookstore's sustainability section is a good start in promoting the "greener" lifestyle. It's small, but offers a wide variety of products - most notably notebooks and computer paper from Environotes. It is definitely a step in the right direction. By offering environmentally safe products, it gives students a chance to purchase items that help the environment.
Unfortunately, it is often very difficult to find products that are less damaging to the environment because no store really carries them. Not to mention that many environmentally safe products can be quite expensive. The environment is losing its case in the stores where there are not many earth-friendly products - and even if they did offer such products, they might be out of your price range. At least UIC is doing something to help the environment with these affordable products.
Furthermore, the University does have recycle bins (a lot of them, in fact); they are helping UIC's students move in a greener direction. Alas some advertisers and students are not.
It's a simple and sometimes useful tactic: leave the pieces of paper lying around "inconspicuously" in order to attract the attention of students/potential customers. People leave these advertisements in bathroom stalls or on the tables in the Inner Circle.
Honestly it all just becomes paper waste: much of the time these ads do not leave their drop-off location. They are still there on the table (or pushed off to the floor) or in the bathroom.
It's not just the advertisers who create this paper waste - it is also the students who very often just take the paper (instead of denying one) and wait until they reach the escalator to drop the advertisement on the floor. Students should at least wait until they reach a recycle bin to throw out the advertisements and miscellaneous papers that they receive.
Fortunately, many students are doing well on this front and UIC helps by having so many recycle bins in and around the school. Yet, it's not enough. If we really want to help on the green front then we'll remember do our part recycle and stop accepting advertisements.
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