City Demands Full Recycling Plans From University, Student Groups

Harvard University and all off-campus student organizations must submit recycling plans to the city by the new year or face stiff fines.

Under the city's 1991 recycling ordinance all businesses, including the University and independent student groups, must submit a recycling plan to the Cambridge recycling coordinator by January 1, 1993.

The plan must include estimated breakdowns of the composition of the business' trash as well as the name of a trash pick-up company contracted to cart away the recyclable. The city will fine violators $25 per day.

After Harvard and the city's 4,000 businesses submit their plan, the city will review them and send them back for implementation if approved. The city will perform random spot checks to make sure businesses are adhering to their plans.

The individual plans will help put the city businesses in compliance with state landfill laws that ban certain materials from dump sites over the next five years.

"We view our role as assisting the Cambridge businesses to assist themselves in preparing for the landfill bans," said Jan C. Aceti, the city's recycling coordinator.

And one of the city's largest businesses, the University, will also have to submit a plan that includes the campuses of the graduate schools, the College and many affiliated organizations including Harvard Student Agencies, The Independent and the University Press.

Packages explaining the law and asking for separate recycling plans have been mailed to many independent off-campus student organizations, including The Crimson.

Robert M. Gogan, recycling Coordinator for Facilities Maintenance at the University, said that although Harvard already has recycling bins scattered throughout campus, the University is not yet in compliance with city law.

Recycling stations, recycling blue boxes in student suites and trash sorting in the dining halls are two measures students will soon see implemented in their houses and in the Yard, Gogan said.

But the University's move toward a more environmentally-conscious trash policy was not initiated by the city ordinance.

"I think the University is acting in response from a perceived upswing in environmentalism," Gogan said.

The plan will cost the University about $100,000, more than officials originally projected, according to Gogan.

Student Groups

Let's Go, Inc., a subsidiary of Harvard Student Agencies, has been working since the summer with their landlord Ben Thomson Associates to devise a more effective recycling plan, said Publishing Manager Mark N. Templeton '93-94.

"We tried to do it and it took a lot of time, but people felt it was time well spent." said Templeton, a former executive of The Crimson.

And the Hasty Pudding Club, which, under a new plan, recycles its large shipments of bottles through the University, now leaves smaller quantities of bottles in Apley Court for the homeless to collect, said Alexandra L. Fuhrman '93.