At The Daily Cougar, nothing infuriates us more than seeing people disrespect others and their hard work. As a collective body that works for and with people of all ages and walks of life, nothing is more important than extending common courtesy and basic respect for others.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the journalism industry, we work on pretty random schedules. We are always in and out of our offices and perpetually coming and going. Every once in a while, the obligation of running a daily paper requires us to work far into the wee hours of the morning. In the midst of our irregular hours, we get a chance to communicate and socialize with the various people who make this campus run.
During one of those conversations recently, it was brought to our attention that a small act could have a very significant consequence, like throwing a piece of trash into a designated recycle bin can negate the work of many people, for example.
Each time something is improperly discarded into a paper recycle bin, the foreign object risks soiling the paper and thereby contaminating the entire bin. The paper is then unable to be recycled and must be discarded with regular garbage.
The end result is more work for the people who are dedicated to keeping our campus nice, and wastes the effort of those who were trying to recycle.
It is a great injustice to benefit from the hard work of others only to turn around and degrade it. If you can’t finish that soft drink you got for lunch at the UC Satellite, make sure you throw it away properly. As college students, we should all have the common sense that tells us the coffee cup we need to throw away does not go in the bin for recycled paper, even if we just emptied the unconsumed contents into the grass.
This is above and beyond recycling recognitions. As students and as a campus, we should be tenacious in our efforts to uphold our responsibilities — that means throwing trash into trashcans that have liners, discarding paper that is to be recycled into the proper bins, and being responsible for our actions.
