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• The Green-House Competition

They are sitting in the corner, three blue plastic bins. A confetti of garbage is scattered around on the floor, some of it paper, plastic and aluminum – recyclables. Within the bins, things are a bit confused, with Styrofoam cups lying in the “plastic” container, and cardboard boxes in the “aluminum”. But, for the most part, these bins and this house – Delta Tau Delta fraternity – is getting it right.

The frat is one of 23 Greek houses contesting in Community Organized Recycling Effort’s (CORE) Green-House Competition. It is a new initiative, a pilot program, to try to organize fraternities and sororities to recycle for two weeks.

Ricky Palmerin, a member of Delta Tau Delta, volunteered to be the recycling coordinator during the competition. He said that they had been talking of creating a recycling position for the house the same day CORE visited to announce the competition.

The frat signed up and Palmerin decided to be in charge. He bought containers for every floor of the house, labeled them, and has been monitoring them each day since the contest began. When full, they are emptied into garbage bags, which are stored in the corner of the basement until the collection day at the campus Waste Transfer Station. He has already noticed that the regular garbage bins have been filling up slower.

“[The recycling bins] have been respected. It’s been going pretty well. We’ve actually collected a lot of paper and plastic,” says Palmerin. He sent out a mass e-mail to the other members to inform them about the competition, its rules, and what kind of things to recycle. He hopes the frat can offer other incentives to its members – like service hours or points for room selection – to keep them participating.

In a place where just keeping the trash in the trashcans can be a problem, Palmerin is optimistic. “I actually hope to continue recycling beyond the competition. I’m looking to continue the rest of the semester and hopefully carry it on to next semester,” he added.

His assessment is simple. “We can save the world so much, but people don’t really care.” Maybe, though, if a fraternity can do it – even just for a couple of weeks – then anyone can.