ELCA News Blog
October 30, 2006
Pacific Lutheran University staff increases recycling can by can
by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service
As environmental sustainability gains momentum as both the next big trend in higher education and a practical reality with which administrators must contend, Pacific Lutheran University (PLU), Tacoma, Wash., is doing its part to reduce its environmental footprint, according to Amy Cockerham, director of the PLU News Service. PLU is one of 28 colleges and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
About 40 percent of PLU faculty, staff and administrators participated in the "Can the Can" event on Oct. 11 by handing over their trash cans. Participants in the effort forfeit garbage service by janitorial staff and assume responsibility for disposing of waste. So far 250 trash cans were voluntarily turned over in exchange for tiny, desktop containers, said Cockerham, adding that people will be forced to recycle more by reducing trash capacity. University policy calls for an increase in the institutional recycling rate from 65 percent to between 80 and 85 percent within the next five years.
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