Talking Trash

Mason’s widespread recycling efforts provide for a cleaner, eco-friendlier university

By Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA ’95

Ron Lim loves talking trash, but as manager of recycling and waste management at Mason, he is really specific about what he means. One of the biggest challenges facing Lim and his crews in their efforts to keep Mason beautiful and environmentally responsible is people who don’t—or won’t—read.

“It is very much a throwaway society,” Lim says. “We try to make it easy for people [to recycle]. Sometimes people would rather just throw something away than take a couple more steps to one of the recycling cans.”

Then there is the opposite problem, with which they also have to deal. Despite the fact that the recycling containers are all clearly labeled and have lids different from those on the trash cans, the crews on campus consistently find containers of recycling contaminated by the remains of someone’s lunch.

Yet Lim is optimistic. He believes the tide is turning and people are becoming more environmentally conscious. “Our volume has definitely gone up,” he says, “and I think overall awareness of environmental issues is making a difference.”

Lim first came to Mason in 1989 as the head of one of the recycling crews. At the time, he was working for the Northern Virginia Training Center (NVTC), just down Braddock Road from the Fairfax Campus. One of his crews still comes from NVTC.

“My people make me look good. These guys don’t miss work,” Lim says of the high-functioning disabled people who work for him. “They are always very enthusiastic about the job.”

The university began its recycling program in July 1989 with five buildings on the original Quad, two carts, and one worker. Now the program encompasses more than 40 buildings, 12 crew members, three classified employees, and a number of wage employees.

The university’s new buildings have also helped make a difference, particularly the new residence halls such as Potomac Heights, which actually have dedicated space to accommodate recycling containers, according to Lim.

Fortunately, Lim is not alone in his efforts. Recycling is truly becoming a campus-wide activity as faculty and students join in. This fall, he is working with students from the Fostering Sustainability in the 21st Century class to find ways to reach out to resident students and others to increase recycling volume as well as awareness. He has also received help from campus organizations such as Students for a Democratic Society, which take responsibility for the recycling containers in certain areas on campus.

And what the university recycles is also very interesting. Extending far beyond mixed paper and soda cans, the list includes shipping pallets, refrigerant, cooking and motor oil, and fluorescent tubes. Lim’s group even goes so far as to disassemble broken items such as desks into recyclable wood and scrap metal.

“The program has never been a money-making venture,” Lim says. “We do get revenue from it, but we don’t make a profit.”

But with such things as trash, Lim admits that for a lot of people it is out of sight, out of mind. He is more likely to get calls for something messy than compliments for pristine parking lots, although he has received some of those.

“I don’t want us to be obtrusive,” Lim says. “I would rather people just notice that the recycling containers are empty or the parking lot is clean.”