In what seems to be an attempt to encourage recycling, Baruch college has eliminated trash receptacles from faculty offices in the Newman Vertical Campus. However, this recent initiative of trash bin removal has been a disservice in its overall execution.

While it may have been a good idea in theory, the removal of trash bins from faculty offices does not encourage recycling. Rather, it forces faculty to combine trash and recycling, especially when people don’t want to get up to find a trash bin.

Some faculty have expressed their willingness to get up and walk seven feet to the nearest department trash bin, but not all faculty are lucky enough to be close to the department entrance. Many professors have chosen to mix garbage and recycling in the blue bin they have adjacent to their desk, tossing in their broken pen with paper and food waste.

This begs the question of whether faculty received messages on proper recycling tips and their long-term consequences. One would think living and working in New York City, faculty would know to recycle. But perhaps it is the threat of New York City Department of Sanitation fines that keep residents in check.

As the school attempts to become greener, it would help to efficiently implement such novelties by encouraging faculty through competitive and/or punitive measures.

By creating competitions between departments, lecturers would question whether their waste is recyclable and would walk the extra distance to recycle their broken pen holder.

Competitions would also garner conversation. Faculty may run into one another by the recycle bin or in the elevator, and start a conversation regarding environmentally sustainable policies. Such conversation is the first step toward environmentally-conscious facilities and students.

When their lecturers are actively recycling, New York City students learn to weigh the risks and appreciate their campus’s efforts, choosing to recycle rather than contribute to overflowing landfills. In such a progressive city, the choice one makes leads to not an independent result, but affects their community and ultimately their city.

Everyone bears responsibility to society to maintain their carbon footprint, and it is recycling efforts like Baruch’s that encourage everyone.

However, if such efforts are not also tied to educating and reminding, folks will struggle to grasp the true impact of their negligence.