Garbage project lays out statewide problem

Typically, students spend a class period in a classroom, not elbow-deep in garbage. But for Dr. Grace Ju Miller’s “Environment and Society” class, sorting through waste is just another way to learn.

The class, which is currently focusing on waste management, recently spent time sorting through 24 hours’ worth of trash from Elder Hall, Burns Hall, and Noggle Christian Ministries Center as part of a study on garbology, or the study of garbage.

“I want to have this exercise so that my students could actually see for themselves how IWU, represented here by three buildings, how we are doing as recyclers,” said Miller.

In three hours’ worth of class, Miller’s students sorted through 11 pounds of aluminum cans, 11 pounds of food, and 17 pounds of paper that could be recycled. All of this material was originally thrown away, instead of placed in a recycling bin.

Despite all that was recycled during the project, anywhere from 100 to 130 pounds of material still went to the landfill.

“It’s kind of overwhelming. I didn’t realize so much trash happened in a day in just three buildings here,” said Brooke Johnson (fr), who observed the activity.

The results Miller’s classes experienced are part of a statewide problem.

“Indiana, of the 50 states, ranks the highest in number of pounds of municipal solid waste produced per person per day,” said Miller. “Probably it’s because we may not be doing recycling as well as some other states.”

For IWU employees Adam Binkerd and John Lynn, dealing with trash is an everyday activity. As part of facilities services, the two men work diligently to not only keep IWU’s campus clean, but also to decrease the amount of material the university sends to the landfill. Hand-collecting trash, sorting through recyclable materials and disposing of unusable waste is part of the process, which has grown to be a large-scale, fulltime operation.

Yet facilities services can only do so much. In the end, waste management comes down to individual responsibility. Those involved with the class project hope that in the future students will be more conscious about what they do with their trash now that they’ve had firsthand experience with it.

“If you have to touch that waste, that gets a really big impact as far as [it] makes you think about what are you personally throwing away and what is your personal responsibility to a community like IWU,” said Megan Leeder-Stephens, project manager for operations at Indiana Wesleyan.

According to those involved in the project, students should not only be conscious of their waste for the sake of the environment, but as a part of their faith.

“We are to be stewards of what we have, of what God’s given us and that’s why we do what we do,” Binkerd said.

Although seemingly unseen, the effort made on the part of students, faculty, and employees alike could help to eliminate unnecessary waste at IWU by simply being more careful with what they put in their garbage cans.

“Trash just disappears; you don’t ever see it after you throw it away,” said Leeder- Stephens. “But someone has to deal with it and someone has to take care of it for you. So that’s a good way to be a steward at the first end instead of the last part.”

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