The pungent odor of garbage seeped throughout the Cooper Forestry Building on Saturday as several UK students sorted through the good, the bad and the ugly trash trying to determine the amount of recyclable waste produced by the Margaret I. King Library.
As part of a natural resource conservation class project, the participating students sorted and weighed 1169 pounds of waste from the library, 574 pounds of which was recyclable.
From noon Thursday until noon Friday, the library employees put the trash into the beds of two parked pick-up trucks.
The class, along with a few volunteers from the UK Sierra Club and the UK Water Watch Group, met at the Cooper Building from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday to sort through trash and weigh the recyclables.
The library was targeted by the class to help the staff prepare facilities for the William T. Young Library now under construction, environmental science senior Julia Patton said.
Assistant professor of forestry and ecology Mary Arthur, who teaches the class and picks a different project each year, acknowledged that her students' work probably will not affect the new library's design, although the study may help other areas of campus deal with waste management, she said.
Scott Razzino, who is in charge of recycling for the Residence Hall Association and a class member, plans on opening the recycling bins at Haggin Hall for the project.
Not everything thrown out by the library staff is trash.
"I don't think people realize what they throw away," said Amy Bacon, a national conservation management senior.
There were several cans, newspapers and plastic bottles included in the waste.
"We are trying to eliminate the amount of waste in the landfill," said Eric Johnson, national conservation management senior.
Although Arthur chose solid waste management as the topic for this year, the students were responsible for picking the library as the site to look at recycling.
"This is a student-driven course," Arthur said. "I think it's great for student to work in their own backyard because its relevant to their environment."
Arthur also pointed out that the class is not singling out the library for recycling.
"We wanted to pick a place familiar to everybody. The library already recycles computer paper, and we will be calculating the amount that gets recycled and the amount that gets thrown away," Arthur said.
Prior to the trash pick up at the library, Arthur instructed her class perform a solid waste audit.
"We all threw away about a pound of waste a day, and 50 percent of that waste was recyclable," Arthur said.
"It's like respect for where you live," said Steve Santapola, an electrical engineering sophomore.
But not everybody recycles. Some even think that recycling will not effect this generation.
"(Recycling) is not going to effect us in our lifetime," undeclared sophomore David Dierstein said.
Time is the deciding factor. What Arthur's class finds out about recycling and solid waste management could effect the campus for a long time to come because a coordinator for campus recycling is being talked about, Arthur said.
"The results will be presented at the end of the class," Arthur said. "We will invite everybody we have interacted with over the course of the semester and several administrators, but anybody is welcome to attend." p>
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