kellydrummond February 29th, 2012

These are a few changes in your laundry routine that could help save energy and water and keep clothes looking bright and cheery.

First, by putting on full loads of laundry instead of half full or even just a few items in the washer saves energy, water, and time. By having full loads of laundry you will spend less time doing laundry and with less loads comes less water and electricity being used.

When deciding on which setting to put the washing machine on (cold/cold, warm/cold, hot/cold, etc.) it is best to use the coldest setting. The coldest setting uses less energy because there is no heating of the water. The added advantage of turning on the cold setting is clothes will last longer and stay bright in color. Instead of changing the setting on the washing machine you could use a stain remover on clothing beforehand.

After washing clothing the next step is the dryer. Most people in America use an electronic dryer to dry their clothing but that is not necessary. There are many inexpensive drying racks for clothing available at local stores. By drying your clothing on a drying rack you are saving loads of electricity and the clothes come out the same as they would with an electronic dryer! 

And now for the Week 3 scores for RecycleMania!

1st place: Scudder Hall with 3.422*

2nd place: Capen Hall with 3.282*

3rd place: Lenape Hall with 2.983*

4th place: College/Shango with 2.930*

5th place: Bevier Hall with 2.840*

6th place: Bliss Hall with 2.750*

7th place: Esopus Hall with 2.710*

8th place: Dubois Hall with 2.636*

9th place: Lefevre Hall with 2.595*

10th place: Deyo Hall with 2.535*

11th place: Crispell Hall with 2.492*

12th place: Gage Hall with 2.122*

13th place: Bouton Hall with 2.008*

*=pounds of recycling per person

Congratulations to Scudder Hall for winning RecycleMania three weeks in a row! Keep up the good work!

Also, if any halls want any help with programming or anything recycling related then feel free to email me at: newpaltzrecycles@gmail.com

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kellydrummond February 20th, 2012

RecycleMania is gaining recognition around campus and halls are working to have programs to support and promote the competition.

Scores for all the residence halls:
Bevier: 6th place, 2.474*
Bliss: 2nd place, 2.927*
Bouton: 9th place, 2.274*
Capen: 7th place, 2.419*
College/Shango: 4th place, 2.735*
Crispell: 12th place, 2.015*
Deyo: 13th place, 1.921*
Dubois: 11th place, 2.219*
Esopus: 3rd place, 2.792*
Gage: 10th place, 2.256*
Lefevre: 8th place, 2.416*
Lenape: 5th place, 2.626*
Scudder: 1st place, 3.301*
*= pounds per person

Congratulations to Scudder Hall! They have now won Weeks 1 and 2 of RecycleMania but each week is a new beginning!

If you would like to get more involved in RecycleMania then join Recycling Club! We meet on Tuesday nights at 8 in SU 414.

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kellydrummond February 13th, 2012

What an exciting first week!

Here are the scores for all the residence halls for Week 1 of RecycleMania:

1st place- Scudder with 3.409*
2nd place- Lenape with 3.366*
3rd place- College/Shango with 2.866*
4th place- Dubois with 2.818*
5th place- Esopus with 2.644*
6th place- Bliss with 2.615*
7th place- Bevier with 2.563*
8th place- Lefevre with 2.399*
9th place- Capen with 2.361*
10th place- Gage with 2.349*
11th place- Crispell with 2.307*
12th place- Deyo with 2.251*
13th place- Bouton with 2.188*
*= pounds of recycling per person

Every week is a new beginning so keep on recycling!

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kellydrummond February 9th, 2012

Hasbrouck Dining Hall is the only dining hall on the SUNY New Paltz campus. It is a tray-less buffet style dining hall and on your way out you drop off your dishes and silverware in the dish room. But have you ever wondered what happens to your food scraps after you drop off your plates? Well I had the chance to take a behind the scenes tour of the facility and found a comprehensive composting plan.

 
Composting is the act of taking food scraps, yard clippings and other organic waste and combining it to create humus which is a natural fertilizer. The food scraps and other materials when combined decompose together in a pile or in a large machine and when they break down the resulting product has a high amount of nutrients which are perfect for gardening. Even in the dead of winter the middle of a compost pile is actually very hot because of the gases released in the process of decomposition.

 
In Hasbrouck Dining Hall the food scraps are scraped from the plates into 55 gallon barrels lined with biodegradable, compostable bags. Leftover food prep scraps from fruit, vegetables, and meat are placed in composting bins. Also included in the compost are liquids such as milk or soups. Hasbrouck does everything they can to freeze the leftovers to serve again but still food waste is produced from food scraps and liquids. Hasbrouck has also just started a food recovery program to donate the leftover food to Queens Galley, a local soup kitchen, in Kingston. Even more green composting bins are seen behind where the food is served which when all combined creates an environment geared towards composting as much as possible. Hasbrouck feeds about 3,000 people every day and 800 to 1,000 pounds of food waste is produced every day! On Sunday and Monday the dining hall typically composts about 16 barrels of food waste. Royal Recycling are the haulers that take away the composting to Greenway, a composting facility in Poughkeepsie, and they come six days a week to transport the food waste.

 
Taking a tour of the composting in practices was great and it is plainly seen how hard the dining hall is working to compost as many food waste as possible. The whole facility has an environmentally friendly mindset and while I was taking the tour I saw many dining hall workers actively putting food scraps into green composting bins.

To see pictures of this behind the scenes tour please go to: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150525150427750.373625.195052437749&type=1 and don’t forget to “like” New Paltz Recycles while you’re there!

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kellydrummond February 5th, 2012

RecycleMania is an 8 week competition between colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. This friendly competition is aimed to increase recycling and raise awareness of sustainability issues. Here on our campus it is also a competition between each residence hall.

RecycleMania is split into two different divisions, competition and benchmark. SUNY New Paltz is involved in the benchmark division. This means that the recycling of the campus is tracked for all eight weeks of competition but are not included in the overall rankings in the results of the competition.

The goals of this national competition is to raise awareness of recycling programs, increase participation in recycling programs by both students and staff, and to decrease the amount of waste produced by the college or university by reusing, reducing, and recycling.

Each hall is encouraged to have programs involving RecycleMania and help raise awareness about the competition and recycling in general to help their hall win the grand prize!

The competition begins today (February 5th) and ends on March 31st. The winning residence hall will receive $500! The materials included in the competition are paper, cardboard, cans, bottles, and food waste (composting).

If you would like to get more involved in RecycleMania you can do so by joining Recycling Club! We are having two general interest meetings this week, one on Tuesday at 8pm in SU 414 and the other on Thursday at 8pm in SU 401/405. All are welcome to join and if you feel shy about coming yourself then grab a friend! Recycling Club also has a table at tomorrow’s club fair in SU MPR from 11am to 2pm so come talk to us!

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