Hey! Welcome to Pratt Envirolutions!
If you are looking at this post, then you probably met us at club day, and hopefully you’re looking for more information about recycling at Pratt.
Did you even know there was recycling at Pratt??
Recycling bins are generally an indicator of whether someone recycles or not. Because Pratt doesn’t have recycling bins, it would make sense if you guessed that Pratt does not recycle. In actuality, Pratt DOES recycle. Pratt’s carting service (the one in charge of disposing of waste) uses a “post-sorting system.” This means that all of the trash and the recycling goes into the same bins, to be sorted after collection.
This is how post sorting works:
Say you were to place a nicely washed bottle into the trash, hoping it will be recycled after Five Star (the carting company) sorts the bottles out of the trash. However, what if someone were to put their waste, say, a mysteriously half-eaten cup of fries with a dollop of ketchup into the trash? Your once clean water bottle will now be contaminated, as the globs of ketchup slide down its surface. This bottle no longer has recycling worth to the sorters.
This system, as you can see, leads to more trash in the landfill.
So, although Pratt does have a recycling system in place, it isn’t exactly the most reliant form of recycling available. We have a solution in mind, and we would love for you to get involved! Come to our meetings on Mondays at 12:30 in CSDS (the bottom of the engineering building, look for the green arrow) and come meet us! Let’s discuss our plans for improving Pratt!
(this blurb was brought to you by Anna Walant, Becca Wong, and Laura Lighty!)
