The campaign aspires to recycle or compost 80% of Deerfield’s waste and to put into landfills 20% of the waste. The Think 80/20 initiative encourages a more environmentally aware lifestyle through school meeting presentations, announcements, and signs labeling waste bins.
“My job as an e-proctor is largely educational,” Sharpe said. “But as in any class, students will only learn as much as they want to. The Think 80/20 campaign hopes to facilitate that learning process by giving students more tools. With more signage and more bins, we’re trying to help everyone get to 80/20.”
[pullquote_right]”My job as an e-proctor is largely educational,” Sharpe said. “But as in any class, students will only learn as much as they want to. The Think 80/20 campaign hopes to facilitate that learning process by giving students more tools. With more signage and more bins, we’re trying to help everyone get to 80/20.”[/pullquote_right]
Poor habits of the past spurred the urgency to educate about and aid proper waste disposal.
Sustainability Coordinator Jeffrey Jewett, said that waste collectors have threatened several times to fine Deerfield for including trash in recycling receptacles.
“People didn’t know what to do, and people weren’t usually doing the right thing,” Mr. Jewett said.
Recycling on campus has widened to include collections of items that can be recycled but were previously being sent to the landfill.
“Styrofoam can be recycled, through we usually just throw it away. We have put collection bins in the dorms so it can be recycled,” Jhovae Irving ’13, an e-proctor, said. In addition to styrofoam, the Think 80/20 initiative strives to separate shopping bags, E&R hangers, and electronics to reuse and recycle.
Think 80/20 addresses discrepancies between environmentally sustainable aspiration and current practices. The disproportionate size of the trash container in dorm rooms has been altered to a model being tested in the New Dorm, where the trash bin is a sidecar hanging from the recycling receptacle.