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My name is Rafael Rosa and I’m a senior at Hamilton College. In this post I’ll be sharing some of the Green initiatives undertaken by students on my campus. In general, these ideas can probably be implemented in most colleges and similar institutions.

People usually view recycling as a big hassle. As a result, the first step in increasing recycling rates involves making recycling easy. In many colleges, you typically only find recycling trash cans in academic buildings or other major facilities. It’s uncommon to find recycling cans in the place where students spend a lot of their time: the dormitories. In order to make recycling easier, a club on my campus raised some money and placed sets of recycling cans (paper, 5 cents & other bottles) in all suites, apartments, and every single dormitory floor. The recycling rate more than quadrupled in the first year that the cans were set up. Overall, this is a relative inexpensive initiative that is easy to implement and creates great results.

Generating Green awareness in your college through concrete examples is also beneficial. Conversations regarding recycling and being Green can sometimes be very abstract. You can tell someone that your school generates three tons of trash per week; however, it’s usually hard to visualize what that really means. As a result, every semester Hamilton College displays all of the trash collected in a certain day in the central crossway of the college (where probably every single student goes by everyday). Not only does this action create dialogue among students about recycling, but it also serves to increase the recycling rate at our school.

Another initiative we’ve taken at Hamilton College is to create a campus wide energy-saving competition each semester. Energy consumption is tracked by dormitories and the winning dorm receives a pizza party-like event and other prizes. This initiative is great because it creates an environment where each student is making sure other people they know in the dorm is living up to the expectations. It also helps the development of better habits in a lot of people.

In sum, making recycling easier, generating awareness, and fostering competitions that create better habits are some of the ways to increase the recycling rate at your school. Lastly, remember that these ideas can be implemented in many other institutions and work environments.