Environmental Concerns Committee
Environmental Concerns Committee
Faculty and Staff taking care of the Earth @ NSCC
Recycle Bank
Community site that teaches you how to recycle and live a "greener" life and earn points.
AASHE
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. (NSCC is not yet a member.)
Recycling on campus
Mixed paper and cardbord (big green and blue bins)
Aluminum cans (Double containers, except in the S-Building)
In the S-Building the recycling containers are in the food eating area. (They are square metal containers that are labeled for recycling.)
Plastic bottles (Temporily stopped, except in the library.) Note on recycling plastic: Always look for the recycling symbol before putting in on the plastic recycling bin. Not all plastic is the same.
Ink Toner Cartridges
Batteries.
Recycling plastic
This site tells you how to recycle plastic.
Recycle Mania
Began in January 2001 as a challenge between Ohio University and Miami University, when the two recycling coordinators at the schools were looking for a way to motive their student bodies to recycling more.
A Brief History of the ECC
A Recycling Committee was officially formed in 1991 to coordinate recycling efforts on campus. Metro had recycling bins on the property, and proceeds were split with the White Bridge Neighborhood Association. A full student scholarship was funded by recycling income.
By 1994, activities of the committee expanded to include energy conservation, campus beautification, and annual Earth Day activities (tree and seed giveaways), and the Recycling Committee expanded its mission to become the Environmental Concerns Committee.
In 2003, the ECC undertook and funded a major landscaping project for the front of the campus. Unfortunately, more than half of the plantings succumbed to drought. The ECC also split the cost of installing the traffic light at the White Bridge Road entrance, as well as funding other campus projects such as purchasing energy-savings devices and restoring the sculpture in the Weld courtyard.
In 2005, Metro removed its recycling bins from the NSCC campus, and subsequently, the ECC no longer had the income to support major projects. The ECC scholarship continued until 2009.
In 2010, in conjunction with the Cumberland River Compact, the ECC created an Open Space Plan that was approved by the Executive Committee. This plan includes proposed projects for a nature trail, an outdoor classroom, a campus garden, and improved access to the Greenway that runs behind the main campus.
In the Spring 2010 Green Sleeves (student organization) got plastic recycling approved, and they started recycling the plastic bottles on the campus. The students took the plastic off campus to various Metro recycling locations. Now QRS our paper hauler picks up the plastic that is bagged in clear plastic bags and placed in the maintence yard.
Tennessee Urban Forestry Council
A monthly newsletter: Branching Out.
ECC News:
The ECC should investigate ways to encourage the college to join AASHE. They have a lot of great resources that could help the college become more sustainable.
Current Chair is Jessica Rabb (jessica.rabb@nscc.edu)
October 22, 2014: Here is a summary of our meeting so you can all help us move forward. We had a great turn out. I’ll send out an email next week to plan a date and time for our November meeting (Week of November 17).
(1) Our top priorities (promoting recycling and environmentally friendly food and beverage options) overlap quite a bit. Also, both of these priorities overlap with the education priority (Educate our Community on Environmental Issues).
(2) On the Nashville campus, Maintenance collects recycling and maintains the recycling bins. We would like to set up a meeting with the Maintenance division director to discuss options for ECC to help spread recycling to more locations on the Nashville campus and to the other campuses. I would like to ask about water bottle filling possibilities too. Ideally this meeting will occur before our next ECC meeting in November.
(3) In the meantime, we think that we should educate our community about recycling. Our goal will be to make a small sign/poster each month that points out an interesting fact about recycling. Then change the signs and their position each month. By changing the signs each month we hope to draw more attention to the information on the signs. We could put these signs up in a few locations on multiple campuses. We would like to have our first signs out before our next ECC meeting in November.
(4) Eventually, we would like students to be responsible for designing the signs. We can work with the student club Green Sleeves and students in Arts classes. We could also have multimedia presentations that play on the flat screen displays.
(5) We are going to start to approach food vendors to see if they could offer a mug discount. We’ll start with Juice Wagon, because they may already offer a discount. (They are on the Nashville campus in the AM.)
How can you help? Help me design our first sign! What should it say? What should it look like?
Other Environmentally Friendly News
(1) Urban Runoff 5k, October 25, Bicentennial Mall, 8:30am http://tnstormwater.org/blog/uro5k/
(2) Clean Air 5k Sunday, November 16, Shelby Park, 2:00pm https://cleanair5k.racesonline.com/ (There is a Nashville State Team–Biggest Team gets a reward.)
(3) Removal of Dam in Richland Creek behind Nashville Campus has started.
January 2012: Our paper collection has significantly reduced over the past two years. Some of this is due to reduction of paper use with many faculty and offices going paperless with electronic communication. However, I ask that all faculty and staff be conscientious of disposing of paper in recycling bins instead of trash bins. This benefits the college in two ways–reducing our carbon footprint at the same time lowering costs for waste disposal. In 2011, Nashville State has been able to add cardboard and plastic to our recycling efforts through our vendor QRS Recycling. Please thank our maintenance staff, especially Mark Morey who heads paper recycling, for the work they do for recycling at Nashville State!
July 2011: Main campus recycled 0.61 tons of office paper and cardboard. The Environmental Concerns Committee now receives a small rebate ($75/ton) for office paper and cardboard recycling. Be sure that you put used paper and cardboard in the designated recycling bins, NOT in the trash! Recycling helps the college in two ways–reducing the amount NSCC pays for trash removal AND creating a small income stream for the Environmental Concerns Committee, not to mention the positive impact on the environment at large!
August 2011 paper recycling: The main campus recycled 1 ton of cardboard and 1.8 tons of office paper.
September 2011: The Main campus recycled almost a ton of office paper and cardboard as well as plastic bottles through QRS recycling.
Free Webinars for College Students
CURC
College & University Recycling Coalition's webinar series.
Recycling in Nashville
Davidson County recycling centers
- Bellevue Metro Transit Authority's Park & Ride.
- Hillwood Strike & Spare
- Downtown Residential Recycling Drop-off Point (162 8th Ave., N.)
- Dupont-Hadley Middle School
- Elysian Fields Kroger
- Granbery Elementary School (5501 Hill Rd., Brentwood)
- Hermitage Hobby Lobby
- Hillsboro High School
- Joelton Middle School
- Rivergate Recycling (630 Myatt Dr., Madison)
- Wal-Mart (5531 Edmondson Pike)
- East Center (943A Richard G Adams Dr.)
- Omohundro Center (1019 Omohundro Place)
- Anderson Lane Center (939A Anderson Lane, Madison)
What to recycle:
Aluminum and tin cans, Glass (except at downtown location), Plastics (nos. 1-7), Cardboard, newspaper and mixed paper.
Publix grocery stores accept: paper bags, Styrofoam egg cartons, plastic bags (including newspaper sleeves and dry cleaning bags).
- Kroger stores accept: paper bags and plastic bags (including newspaper sleeves, bread bags and dry cleaning bags).
880-1000
BURNT
Bring Urban Recycling to Nashville