Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
Just Earth will be collecting recyclable materials-plastics, aluminum, newspaper, magazines, glass and tin cans-this Friday April 26, from noon to 2 p.m. in the Quad.
Just Earth organized the recycling drive because there is currently no campus-wide recycling program in effect.
“We are really hoping that Friday will be successful and that students will be excited to recycle and use less trash,” said Emily Weiss, coordinator of Just Earth.
The group will also be collecting recyclable materials later that evening at Spring Fever. There will be bins throughout the grounds to collect plastics.
The Just Earth group worked with the Student Government Association recycling committee to establish a recycling program last semester. Currently students can use the bins in the Marchetti Towers and the Griesedieck Complex to recycle aluminum cans. There are also paper-recycling bins in DuBourg Hall and the computer labs. Other than these few places, there are no recycling programs at Saint Louis University.
“Many other Jesuit universities have recycling programs established already and the Just Earth group feels behind on this issue,” said Weiss. “As a Jesuit university we believe that recycling and protecting the environment are a part of our mission.”
Just Earth is hoping to see a more permanent recycling program on campus next fall. Currently, the only things stopping such a program are the details that need to be worked out. These details concern the threats of a fire hazards as well as the financial burden the program will cause. Other issues deal with where the bins would be located and if there is a strong student interest is such a program.
“The group wants a strong program that will be successful and permanent once it is established,” said Weiss.
Currently, Just Earth is working with area St. Louis recycling programs to help them get information on recycling opportunities in the community. The City of St. Louis Refuse Division has been interested in and helpful about starting a recycling program at SLU. Their biggest concern is that students on campus are not familiar with recycling programs throughout the area.
Just Earth is Amnesty International’s program for action on human rights and the environment. Just Earth campaigns to save lives where they are at risk and to protect the rights of environmental activists around the globe. Amnesty International is working on a joint campaign, “Defending those who give the Earth a Voice,” with the Sierra Club.
Amnesty International has made the connection between human rights and the right to a clean, safe environment. Through Just Earth, Amnesty International is uniting activists and partnering organizations to defend the rights of environmental defenders.
They believe that the Earth desperately needs to be defended and that globalization has put economic imperatives on a collision course with the Earth’s ecosystems and its people.
Communities are witnessing the destruction of their land, the loss of their livelihoods and the dislocation of their families.
But those who speak out, demanding a voice for their communities and the earth, are often silenced. Many face imprisonment; others are harassed, arrested, tortured, raped, even executed for defending the earth.
According to the Web site, Just Earth protests situations where patterns of human-right abuses occur in the wake of environmental destruction; where environmental activists live in fear for their lives; where corrupt and repressive governments form unholy alliances with powerful transnational corporations to deny citizens their rights to freedom of expression and a clean environment.
Just Earth hopes to become more established and more involved as an environmental group on SLU’s campus by extending the membership and reaching out to even more and greater issues in the future.
