Plastic Waste at MC Lacks Distinct Recycling Policy

Jilleen Barrett Senior Writer

According to the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY), colleges and schools in the five boroughs are supposed to recycle metal, glass, cartons, paper and cardboard in separate bins. Hazardous waste is to be disposed of separately.

The process of recycling at Manhattan College starts with students, then becomes the responsibility of Aramark, which handles dining and facilities services at the college, and finally gets finished by the DSNY.

Aramark handles the beginning of the process when it comes to getting rid of waste at the college but handles waste from food services on campus separately than from other college facilities.

Richard McKeown is in charge of technical waste management at the college and described how the recycling process is supposed to work.

were being a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher or a police officer.

Her mother wanted her to be a doctor and Whyte adopted that aspiration initially. However, when she took biology in high school, she realized that it wasn’t the right fit for her.

“I think for me, it was just remembering all the scientific names and I just didn’t find it appealing. [But], I love math, I love chemistry, and I can definitely tolerate physics,” Whyte said.

When her electrical and electronics technology teacher told Whyte to consider a career in engineering, she jumped at the idea. Whyte told The Quadrangle that she began to research engineering, and realized there were so many possibilities until she settled on chemical engineering.

“ I said, ‘I think this is the one, I’m going to try this one,’ and honestly, I think that’s the best decision I’ve ever made,” Whyte said.

Whyte applied to universities and colleges all over the world as she finished up high school, receiving scholarships from schools in Russia, China and the United States. As the U.S. felt closer to home and Whyte had some family members in New York City, she was able to narrow down her choices.

After receiving a scholarship to Manhattan College,

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He said that the college sorts each type of waste by providing different colored garbage bags for each type of trash. Black is for regular garbage, blue is for glass and clear is for paper and cardboard.

After trash gets thrown in the corresponding bags, they are taken to one of the three large dumpsters by the parking garage. Like the colored bags, each dumpster is designated specifically for a certain kind of trash.

Dart Westphal, an adjunct professor of urban studies, told The Quadrangle that there actually is a fourth bin near the garage that is specifically for plastics. It was placed there so the school could start sorting out plastics before they went to the sanitation department, so it would be ensured that they would get recycled.

The problem is that there is no official process for recycling plastics at the college, so they just don’t get recycled.

“They just haven’t figured out how to fill [the white dumpster] up,” Westphal said.

Because of this, Westphal feels that the school not successfully recycling plastics doesn’t fall on the students or community because there is no process for recycling them anyway.

“If they [the MC community] were source separating perfectly, it still wouldn’t get recycled because it all goes in the same bin,” Westphal said. “So it’s minorly on the students in my opinion.”

When it comes to food services, a third-party company called Waste Management comes to the college three times a week to collect waste sorted by Aramark.

According to Edward Gomez, a general manager of dining facilities at the college who is an employee of Aramark, “Dining recycles metal cans, glass and plastic containers, cardboard and paper.”

McKeow ensures materials that include waste with mercury will be recycled. This includes fluorescent lamps, batteries, computers, printers and more. He oversees that all of these materials are shipped in boxes to a separate company.

From there, McKeown says that they receive confirmation that the materials have been, “dismantled and redistributed back into industry, so the materials can be reused again, and they don’t go into landfills.”

McKeown also mentioned that metals get recycled, and that the college has recently

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