It is easy to imagine the type of waste that is generated at a University of New Mexico football tailgate, with aluminum cans, plastic bottles and cardboard usually sent directly to the landfill. This season, a group of students from environmentally-focused student organizations across campus are banding together to make recycling easier than ever for Lobo fans by debuting a roaming recycling cart at home tailgates.
The cart began roaming on Nov. 15 at the Lobo football tailgate to collect and manage the recyclables people had on-hand during the event. 聽Led by senior Shaylene Sanchez, the team is attempting to reform the University鈥檚 current recycling practices by making a roaming recycling cart to collect items like cans and bottles 鈥渨here people actually toss them,鈥� and adding volunteers to 鈥渃lose the gap between what we need to be recycling and what we really do recycle,鈥� Sanchez said.
By the end of the tailgate, the cart had collected 29 lb. of mixed paper, 8 lb. of plastic, 2 lb. of non-can metal, 17.5 lb. of metal cans and 8.5 lb. of glass, coming to a total of 65 pounds of recyclables; for comparison, approximately 15 lb. of trash was collected.