With just more than four weeks left in the semester, the Residence Halls Association and student environmental group Eco still are trying to iron out a plan to increase recycling in residence halls.
Last semester, RHA Recycling canceled its contract with Waste Management under suspicion that the company was throwing away recyclables.
But since MSU's Office of Recycling and Waste Management lacks facilities, fewer materials - newspaper and printer ink cartridges - are recycled than in the fall.
In December, Eco officials met with RHA to discuss a plan to bring back aluminum, glass and plastic recycling. Eco member Amy Gregory was a part of the meeting.
"We helped them to coordinate recycling in (residence hall) complexes" by helping to find and train people to staff residence halls, the general science senior said.
Since then, however, there have been a few setbacks to increasing recycling. Both parties have been frustrated by a lack of communication, with each having trouble contacting the other.
RHA Recycling Director Marne Gleason and Keith Jones, RHA's Office of Programs director, still are working to increase campus recycling. Gleason said he worked out an agreement for pick-up vehicles, which will take materials to Granger Recycling Center, 16936 Wood St. in Lansing. Glass, plastic and aluminum recycling is in the works for Akers and Hubbard halls, but Gleason declined to comment on any details.
Gleason said another problem came from the complexes themselves.
"I hired new employees, however, once they were hired, most of the hall managers told me that they no longer needed them. So that left me in search of something for all of these new employees to do," he said.
RHA Recycling is planning a cleanup of the Sanford Natural Area, which is located north of East Complex, near the end of April.
Gregory said the cleanup is a good idea, but it's only a first step.
"There has been some effort, but there's still no comprehensive program on campus," she said.
A bigger problem than not being needed by complex managers is the recycling coordinators aren't being paid, Gleason said.
He said there has been a snag with the university preventing the coordinators from receiving their pay.
"It's not fun for them, and relations are slipping, which is proving to be a little bit of a problem," he said.
Gleason added, however, that a few of the coordinators still are showing up to help out. One of them, RHA Holmes Hall representative Mike Playford, is applying for Gleason's job next year.
"It would be a smooth transition," Gleason said, adding Playford is not the only applicant for the position. "He's got great ideas to make it all work."
