PIERCE COLLEGE : Student Group Starts Recycling

Environmental awareness at Pierce College advanced a step this semester when the Woodland Hills school’s Associated Students Organization initiated its recycling program.

Trash drums that had not been used since they were designated for campuswide recycling last May were incorporated by the ASO into a program to recycle aluminum cans for profit, said Paul Tripe, vice president of the organization’s Inter-Organizational Council.

Of the 50 drums donated to Pierce in May by the Atlantic Richfield Corp., 36 had not been put to use by November when the student government program was inaugurated. Fourteen others were being used for garbage cans on campus.

The drums were intended to be used for recycling, but a shortage of manpower brought on by budget cuts made such a program impossible, said Stan Askew, plant facilities operations manager. “There just aren’t enough bodies,” he said.

Askew had called for a club to take on the responsibility.

“Plant facilities will give complete cooperation to any group on campus that wants to be responsible for recycling,” he said.

On Oct. 9, the ASO executive council passed a resolution agreeing to take on the recycling program and then drafted a plan with the Architectural Students Assn. that is expected to collect at least 5,000 aluminum cans a week, or about $4,000 worth a semester.

Though only cans will be recycled at first, Tripe said the ASO eventually will recycle glass and plastic as well, if the program is successful.

“Paul has done a wonderful job . . . with this program,” said Judy Ponser, ASO faculty adviser.