7 to 1

7:1 is the ratio of garbage to recycling bins at Florida, by my unofficial counting on the way to lab this afternoon. In short, Florida sucks at recycling.

I'm pretty environmentally conscious about my waste, so having limited recycling bins is only making the experience for those around me more unpleasant. Currently there is a nice pile of yellowish papers by my trash can, and before Jess visited last weekend there was a rather sophisticated pyramid of PET bottles on my desk. I'm not a squirrel (shocking, I know), so hoarding my trash isn't my forte.

What I realized today is that really miss is the recycling mindset of SCU (my alma mater for those who don't know). On that campus I always felt that it was inconvenient not to recycle. There were always eyes watching and judging me to see where I placed my piece of dirty plastic. When I went to a lecture a month ago on climate change, which ended up being a regurgitation of Al Gore's documentary, I asked the lecturer (who is a professor in my current department of Materials Science) why there weren't more recycling bins. It seemed like a stupid question. I got an answer that was more or less "why is this relevant." At these types of lectures, scientists have a tendency to cop out to big policy. They say, "our school needs to ratify the Kyoto Protocol" or "we all need to support renewable energy and buy fuel efficient cars" as if there were a team of administrators in the back that were going to respond "oh really? That's what we have to do? ok!" Hello...we're broke...we can't afford Priuses or renewable energy.

What I want is a simple, money saving solution that will also be good for the environment (and my hygiene, I guess). I would like one recycling bin outside my office so that I don't have to disgust my co-workers with my trash sculptures. I want to know that people are just as concerned with the little solutions as they are with the big.