One bad apple does spoil the whole bunch when it comes to what goes in the blue recycling baskets in offices across the West Virginia University campus. An errant newspaper or paper towel renders a containers contents”contaminated,”condemning them to the garbage heap with other non-recyclables.

WVU biology students Suzanne Sanders and Julia Showalter are on a mission to encourage the University community to recycleand recycle right. They will showcase their cause Thursday, Nov. 15, in the Mountainlair as part of National Recycling Day by setting up an information booth with brochures, fliers and an exhibit explaining the dos and donts of recycling.

“We want to let people know how to use the system better so they can be sure that what they put in the blue bins is accepted,”said Sanders, a graduate student from Cincinnati.”If one piece of unacceptablematerial ends up in the blue bins, the entire contents are thrown out.”

What is accepted is office paper only. This includes white ledger paper, Xerox copy paper, stationary, Post-it notes and junk mail.

Unacceptable material includes aluminum cans, plastic, glass and paper items such as magazines, newspapers and telephone books.

Sanders and Showalter have been meeting with various department heads to promote better recycling efforts on campus. They are working with WVU Physical Plant, the Student Board of Governors Recycling Committee, University recycler Browning-Ferris Industries and the Sierra Student Coalition.

They stress that besides being good for the environment, recycling makes economic sense. The more that people recycle at WVU , the less garbage there is for BFI to collect. The less garbage there is, the more BFI reimburses what the University pays for garbage collection.

The studentsenvironmental interests coincide with their majors and career goals. Sanders is studying environmental plant biology and wants to be a conservation biologist. Showalter, of Morgantown, is an undergraduate biology major and vice president of the Sierra Student Coalition; she is interested in a job in the environmental field.

For more information about WVU s recycling program, contact Sanders at 293-5201, ext. 2506; Showalter at 292-8381; or Dave Dixon, Physical Plant, 293-9261.

Below are lists of what items can and cannot be disposed of in the recycling bins.

The following materials WILL be accepted: White ledger
Post-it notes Xerox copy paper
Construction paper White computer paper
Telephone messages Notebook paper
Colored paper Adding machine tape
Previously recycled paper Green Bar CPO
Stationary Glossy fax paper
Laser paper Manila-Kraft folders
Blueprints W.L. Paper (Memlo Ink)
Checks Envelopes with or without windows
NCR paper Letterhead
Blue bar CPO Staple paper
Wide white CPO Card stock (colored or white)
Junk mail The following materials WILL NOT be accepted: Magazines/catalogs
Food containers Telephone books
Overnight envelopes Newspapers
Glass Cardboard
Computer discs Carbon paper
Plastic Microfiche/film
Mylar Aluminum cans
Rubber Paper towels/tissue
Trash Magnetic tapes
Metals