The Road to Environmental Collapse is Paved in Good Intentions

By: Lauren Maidrand
Posted In: Opinion

If you haven’t been into the revamped Wakehurst Student Center, you are in for a surprise. I’m not talking about the fresh coat of bright blue paint or the stellar pool table or the ridiculously comfortable couches that just beg to be lounged in. I’m talking about something that’s been taken away, specifically, the big, blue recycling bins. They are missing from their home outside the doors of Global Café.

What you probably will find instead, as I did, are plastic water bottles, glass iced tea bottles and aluminum energy drink cans tossed haphazardly into the garbage barrels along with crumpled balls of paper and leftover peanut butter and jelly crust.

I eventually did find the recycling bins. out by the dumpsters. A rather inconvenient place considering not many Salve students sip their beverages taking in the majestic view of rotting garbage.

Not too long ago, Salve began a greenification process, putting out more recycling bins, using bio-degradable plastic silverware, removing trays from the cafeteria to cut down on waste, replacing regular light bulbs with energy saving ones and encouraging students to act more environmentally responsible. But as it can be seen, the mission to go green did not last. The old plastic silverware is back, made from real plastic rather than corn; plastic water and soda bottles are still sold on campus; the lawns are meticulously and incessantly mowed; thousands of surveys have been handed out on paper rather than sent to students electronically; and those poor blue recycling bins have been shunned from inside Wakehurst.

It would be an understatement to say that the administration at Salve Regina takes pride in the school’s mission. Walk into any classroom on the first day of classes, and you will hear the professor recite how what students do in the classroom integrates with the mission. But outside the classroom, Salve has an obligation to ensure that the mission of the school is upheld. The mission states that “all people are stewards of God’s creation.” and in that sense, all people should care for the earth and the environment that God has created. But every piece of reusable substance that is thrown in the garbage goes directly against that statement.

Salve does have good intentions when it comes to being green, but there is so much more that needs to be done. The first step may just be bringing those recycling bins in from the cold.