The Association of Biologists at Texas Tech (TTUAB) is a graduate student organization in the Department of Biological Sciences with the mission to facilitate scientific communication among graduate students across universities, promote graduate students’ scholarship, and provide service to our communities. A long-standing act of service within our organization is the collection and transportation of cardboard products to the appropriate recycling locations on campus. We do so through a tilt utility cart currently kept on the first floor of the Biology building. However, the biology department has expanded to include Experimental Sciences Buildings I and II in recent years with no departmental support to extend cardboard recycling beyond Biology. Due to financial constraints in regards to equipment purchasing, we have been unable to equally expand our recycling program efforts into these new buildings.
Recycling has a wide variety of benefits including environmental through the reduction of waste sent to landfills and incinerators, conservation of natural resources such as timber, and prevention of pollution through a decrease in collection of raw materials. In terms of benefits to communities and the economy, recycling and reuse activities accounted for 757,000 jobs, $36.6 billion in wages, and $6.7 billion in tax revenue in a single year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Recycling Economic Information Report. Texas Tech University has made several steps towards becoming a greener campus, including partnerships with the Texas Regional Alliance for Campus Sustainability and Green It & Mean It. The Biology building alone produces an average of 2 cubic yards of recyclable cardboard a week, and even more at the start and end of the semester due to departmental orders. We believe that by expanding TTUAB’s recycling efforts into the Experimental Sciences buildings, we would be greatly increasing the amount of cardboard recycled from our department, and therefore the campus’ sustainability as a whole.
This announcement is represented by a registered student organization.
