Green this, green that; lately, it’s all green.
Green power, fuel efficiency, green energy, recycling, green building standards.
Less red and blue dominate the current presidential discussions, while green seems to be brightly highlighted by each contestant.
Global warming was first mentioned in The New York Times 38 years ago. Three decades ago President Jimmy Carter called the energy crisis, “the moral equivalent to war.”
“An Inconvenient Truth” got the public attention, alerting us with pie charts and statistics, that we are much closer to global disaster than we would like to think.
Associated Students Organization intended to show film last Thursday, but it was cancelled due to a power outage from an intense windstorm. How ironic.
It is a self-inflicted crisis and only now do we frantically attempt to negate the very damage we have done.
Is this “truth” more inevitable than inconvenient? Some scientists quietly say it is.
At any rate, at least people are now making an effort to care for the Earth.
Although everybody should have implemented these methods years ago, at least we are trying.
Pierce College began turning “green” in 2003 – even before the color became so popular.
Not many students know, for instance, that the shade coverings at the Performing Arts Parking Lot are actually solar panels that generate clean power for the campus during daylight hours.
There are also microturbines by the south gym, which are approximately the size of a refrigerator, that generate energy with “greater efficiency, lower emissions, lower electricity costs and (the) ability to use waste fuels,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Pierce sells the extra electricity the microturbines generate to DWP.
Upon the event of a power outage, like the one on Thursday, that energy can be rerouted to power parts of the campus.
According to a 2003 news release, the solar panels and microturbines reduce the Pierce electrical purchases by 30 percent and saves approximately $180,000 annually.
For all of the effort put forth by Pierce to turn green, the warming world and concerned students cannot say “thank you” enough.
But there’s just one more thing we could be doing.
It seems dim in light of the $4.1 million for the solar panels and microturbines, and so much simpler: recycling.
It’s not that Pierce doesn’t recycle. We do. Bins are strewn across the campus; the white ones are provided by Plant Facilities and the gray by ASO.
However, often what is meant to be recycled is tossed with the regular compost.
Why?
For a campus with 427 acres and 900 rooms, Pierce has the smallest custodial staff – with 27 employees – out of any other of the L.A. Community College District colleges, according to Paul Nieman, director of Plant Facilities.
On top of being small, the staff has not had enough time to sufficiently clean the campus since the graveyard “C” shift was eliminated in 2004 to save money.
“It had an adverse effect, in my opinion,” said Nieman.
The custodial crew arrives at 4:30 every morning and has three and a half hours to clean the campus.
“It’s a small staff with a small amount of time to clean,” said Nieman. “They don’t have time to sort through the recycling bins. If they see trash in there, the whole thing goes to the trash.”
For this very reason, professor Jim Dawson takes his white paper home to recycle, not convinced it actually makes it to a recycling plant.
His concerns are justified.
Based on interviews with several employees on various parts of the campus, there is confusion about white paper recycling.
For the departments that use the most white paper, like the bookstore and financial aid office, employees aren’t quite sure about recycling, or who to call when their bin was full.
The bookstore manager calls plant facilities, while the assistant manager calls Copy Tech or Foundations, complaining it doesn’t get picked often enough.
The correct place to call when a white paper recycling bin is full is Plant Facilities.
To make Pierce as green as it can be, a few suggestions:
? Students and staff alike should be conscious of what they put in the recycling bins so it can actually be recycled.
? Hire more custodians and give them time to fully do their job, which includes organizing the recycle bins as well as keeping the scene green at Pierce.
? Better organize the white paper recycling process and communicate with staff about that process.
Do it with vigilance, because the world may be ending and this could be helping.
(Chrissy Williams)