Recycling Bins

If you live in an upperclass apartment-style residence hall and don't yet have a recycling bin, check with your RAs. If they aren't able to help, e-mail RSA (at) Northeastern.edu and we'll try to help out.

Outdoor Recycling Arrives

The first outdoor recycling containers have appeared on campus! They are currently all located in the West Campus near the entrances to Building B, Building D [Behrakis], and Building H. The Student Government Association has posted a picture of the new recycling containers outside of Behrakis on their Twitter.

Residents have long asked for recycling to be available outdoors. If you want to see more outdoor recycling on-campus, rest assured that this is on our list of projects to improve campus, and let us know where you would like to see the recycling containers.

Northeastern Makes the Honor Roll

Northeastern University made the 2010 Green Rating Honor Roll in the Princeton Review's 2nd annual report of College and University Green Ratings. Ranking institutions on a scale from 60-99, Northeastern received a score of 99 along with 14 other institutions. You can read more in the official press release here.

While we may have a perfect score, in order to keep it Northeastern must continue offering students sustainable options like recycling bins around campus and food in the dining hall that is farmed sustainably. The Resident Student Association is committed to supporting such improvements when the residents want to see them. If you have ideas on making Northeastern more sustainable, let us know!

A Certified Green Restaurant Right On Campus

Students looking to eat in a "Green" facility will soon be able to enjoy the benefits of a Certified Green Restaurant right on campus with next month's opening of the International Village Dining Hall. The announcement that the dining hall was made a Certified Green Restaurant by the Green Restaurant Association was made by Dining Services on Twitter this morning and the Resident Student Association independently confirmed the information through the Green Restaurant Association's website (see below) just a few minutes ago.


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Recycling

A question that I want to pose to you blog readers: Would you recycle more if recycling bins were more accessible on-campus. For example, if you were throwing a plastic bottle, glass bottle, or paper out and right next to the trash can was a recycling container, would you recycle or just trash it all? If your laundry room had a recycling bin, would you recycle empty laundry detergent bottles versus throwing them away? Or do you already recycle these?

Letting us know will provide some preliminary feedback on a couple ideas that RSA and HEAT discussed in a meeting last night about improving on-campus recycling options and availability.

Earth Hour Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Earth Hour! Earth Hour is an initiative to reduce energy waste by having non-essential lighting turned off for one hour. Supported by Northeastern University and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Earth Hour is Saturday, March 28th from 8:30pm to 9:30pm. During this hour, all resident students are asked to turn off non-essential lighting in their residence hall rooms/suites. Off-campus students are also asked to reduce lighting in their apartments / place of living.

During Earth Hour, around Boston, the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, Prudential Center and John Hancock Building will have lighting turned off. There are also 400 cities around the world participating in Earth Hour.