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President Tyree Wieder speaks to college students, faculty and staff as Los Angeles Valley College launches the District’s new recycling programs at an event organized by students from California Student Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG.).

For years now students across the Los Angeles Community College District have been talking about improving campus recycling programs, and now their dream has come true. During the past week while students were on spring break, the LACCD launched a new recycling program at Los Angeles Valley College with plans to expand throughout the District’s nine campuses. The program is part of a comprehensive plan to bring the District closer to its goal of becoming zero-waste, and will include clearly marked bins in every classroom and office space, as well as more user-friendly outdoor receptacles.

Improving the sustainability of the nine campuses has been a big priority for the District leadership. Since the passage of Proposition A/AA, the district has undertaken the largest public-sector sustainability effort in the country. Larry Eisenberg, Executive Director of the District’s Facilities, Planning, and Development department, is heading up the effort.

“We expect that this effort will result in reduced expenditures for waste hauling, and new revenues thanks to the sale of recyclable materials. This program fulfills the direction from the LACCD Board of Trustees to build in a sustainable manner, maximize the use of alternative energy, offer curriculum that features instruction on sustainability, and eliminate the generation of waste as much as possible at all LACCD colleges,” said Eisenberg.

Development of this program began in the fall when Eisenberg employed the expertise of Recycling Strategies, an eco-consulting group, to come up with a plan to improve recycling across the district. As the program launches at LAVC this week, Recycling Strategies is working with Operations and Maintenance at the rest of the District’s campuses to ensure the program’s completed installation by the end of the academic year.

To get the program off to a good start, campus clubs led by CALPIRG will be doing big visibility and educational events to raise awareness on campus for the new program and make sure students start using it.

Danny Fuentes, CALPIRG Intern and member of the Associated Student Union at LAVC said, “I am so excited that we finally have recycling on campus, and that we have Trustees who care about greening our schools. Now it’s our job as students to make sure we take advantage, and that we tell our peers how important it is that we do our part to make our campuses more sustainable.”