TUESDAY, FEB. 9, 2016
IDS
49.5% recycling rate
41.5%
INDIANA DAILY STUDENT | IDSNEWS.COM
WASTEFUL
37.9%
35.2%
32.6%
Trash and recyclables to be weighed in eight-week competition By Carley Lanich clinch@indiana.edu | @carleylanich
Steve Akers, Residential Programs and Services associate director, is one man with one dream and a whole lot of trash. That’s how Office of Sustainability No Waste Coordinator Bruna Oliveira describes Akers’ dedication to increasing IU’s waste diversion rate, which is the rate at which recyclable products are separated from items destined for the landfill. Akers’ efforts come as IU begins its seventh year of participation in RecycleMania, a nationwide contest raising awareness of on-campus waste production and waste diversion education. “The really cool thing about RecycleMania is that literally every piece of trash that you put into a trash can or a recycling bin tips the weight in favor of or against IU,” Oliveira said. The competition compares the amount of trash and recycling collected each week for an eight week period to track the progress of collegiate recycling through time. This years’ contest began Sunday and aims to promote the sort-
22.9%
13.2%
ing and recycling of various glass, plastic, aluminum and even e-waste products. Akers, who oversees all waste management for RPS, said he is always looking for ways to recycle more and waste less. He said he saw RecycleMania as a way to build awareness and report IU’s standings to the public. “When I found the RecycleMania contest in 2010, it was purely about, ‘Here’s a contest you can participate in to build awareness of the importance of recycling and waste minimization,’ and so I immediately got involved in it,” Akers said. The contest has grown from a small competition between Ohio University and Miami University in 2001 to include nearly 400 schools in last year’s contest. Akers said he hopes to promote friendly competition with other Big Ten and Indiana schools. “IU is competitive in basketball,” Akers said. “IU is competitive in a lot of things. This would be a way, I thought, to be competitive in waste and recycling.” With the help of Residence Hall SEE RECYCLE, PAGE 2
Last year’s Big Ten recycling rates In last year’s RecycleMania, IU had the poorest recycling rate in the Big Ten at 13.2 percent. The recycling rate refers to the amount of material recycled versus the amount of waste sent to the landfill.
Since its beginning in 2001 as a small competition between Ohio University and Miami University, RecycleMania has grown to include nearly 400 schools. The contest will continue for the next eight weeks at IU.
GRAPHIC BY ANNA HYZY | IDS
Celebrated ballerina dies at 82 IRA to have syringe exchange program From IDS reports
Violette Verdy, a distinguished professor and successful ballet dancer, died Monday at age 82. Verdy, who joined the ballet faculty in the Jacobs School of Music in 1996, spent nearly two decades as a principal dancer for the New York City Ballet in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. During her career, according to a release, Verdy performed with more than 50 companies at venues from the Paris Opera to the White House. In 1977, the French dancer was the first woman to become artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet, and she later served as the artistic director of the Boston Ballet. Verdy became a distinguished professor in 2005 and was awarded the IU President’s Medal for Excellence in 2013. Among other awards she received were two medals from the French government — Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 1971 and Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’honneur in 2009 — and awards from the School of American Ballet. She also made several appearances in film, on television and was a published children’s book author. “Dancing makes me feel like those wonderful, little mountain goats,” Verdy told the IDS in 2010. “They borrow the same tracks their ancestors have used for centuries. You adapt to what the steps require and you climb the mountain.”
By Matt Bloom aambloom@indiana.edu | @matthew_bloom
IDS FILE PHOTO
Jack Evans Ballet professor Violette Verdy stretches on a barre at the Musical Arts Center.
This VALENTINE’S DAY...
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Members of the Indiana Recovery Alliance will give away clean syringes, cookers and other supplies that make injecting intravenous drugs safer than sharing used syringes. The exchange will take place Feb. 14. The IRA will be the first nonprofit in Indiana to operate a syringe exchange program. Volunteers made the announcement last Friday on the organization’s Facebook page and in a press release that they would run the program in IRA’s offices in Bloomington at 500 W. Fourth St., Suite 2. Volunteers will also distribute syringes from the IRA’s mobile unit around town. “This is just a small part of what we’ve been doing the last few years,” IRA Project Coordinator Christopher Abert said. “But now people using drugs are empowered to make a positive change in their lives.” On Friday, Abert and other IRA volunteers met with the media in their office on Fourth Street. The supplies were already organized for their opening day in plastic tubs. They included clean syringes, carrying containers, cotton swabs, condoms, lube, cookers, acidifiers, alcohol and clean water. The new syringe exchange is
HIV in Scott County, page 3 The number of confirmed HIV cases in Scott County has risen to 188. intended to prevent an HIV outbreak similar to the one in Scott County, Indiana, the IRA said. State health officials from the Indiana State Department of Health have identified 188 people who tested positive for HIV after sharing used syringes in Scott County last year. Syringe exchange programs in other Indiana counties have reduced the transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and C, and other bloodborne pathogens in people who inject drugs, according to the Indiana State Department of Health. Abert, along with several other IRA volunteers, will negotiate with participants of the syringe exchange about the number of syringes they can get from the program during a single visit, he said. “There’s a rapport you build with them on a personal level,” Abert said. “We don’t keep any records as far as identity.” Indiana law makes it illegal for health departments to use federal or state funds to support the development, implementation or evaluation of syringe exchange programs SEE NEEDLES, PAGE 3
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