First Mission: Recycling

For as long as I can remember I have been told to recycle whenever it is possible. In grade school our teachers used to let us go to recess early if we picked up paper off the ground and put it in the recycle, and in high school if our teachers caught us throwing paper in the garbage we were given detention. My hyper-environmentally-aware mother also had recycling bins for each different kind of reusable material in our home.

When I entered college and I moved into the Theta Alpha chapter of Delta Delta Delta, I noticed that there was not one single recycling bin in the entire house. While this fact initially surprised me, I didn’t dwell on it; however, the idea of zero recycling bins did not sit well with some of my other eco-friendly sisters who began a strategic campaign to implement more green practices in our house.

“We already have garbage cans. I don’t see why we need recycling cans too,” stated Sandy “Mizzay” Anderson, the house mother of Theta Alpha who is responsible for the physical structure and functions of the sorority. “You girls can’t even throw regular trash in the garbage can, how will you decide what to put in the recycling bin?”