By Danyelle Roquemore

Our campus is an eco-friendly place, or at least it tries to be.
Even though the administration promotes a greener campus, a large portion of the college community isn’t making any effort to help out.
When I lived with my mom, we always recycled. She made my sister and me wash out things like ranch dressing bottles and milk jugs so they could be recycled. She’d even go so far as to pull recyclables out of the trash when they were accidentally thrown in.
Thanks to my mom, I’m an avid recycler.
I was excited when I came to Eastfield because it’s so easy to recycle. The bins are conveniently labeled and separated, making recycling almost effortless.
I personally try my hardest to keep my trash and recyclables in the proper receptacles. However, others don’t even seem to notice the bins are labeled at all.
The bins are set up very comprehensively: One side is for waste like food, drinks and other non-recyclable trash, and the other is for recyclable things like paper, plastic bottles and cans. Yet I see Doritos bags and Subway wrappers fill the side designated for recyclables way too often.
Maybe this will be news to some people: Those things are not recyclable. They are just litter that should go in the trash side.
Separating the trash isn’t the only green issue many students, faculty and staff are ignoring. Lights and projectors are left on hours after classes end. This wouldn’t be a big deal if it were one classroom, one time, but it isn’t.
Not only is electricity expensive, the components that help make learning easier are as well.
Projector bulbs cost $400 on average. These bulbs should last for about 2,000 hours, but leaving the projector on for long periods of time can cut the bulb’s life in half. It can also cause the projector to melt down in a quarter of the time it would through proper use.
We have to cut programs and closely watch our budget, but there seems to be no concern for cutting off the lights and projectors. I can only imagine what our electricity bill is now.
My mom always taught me to turn off a light when I left a room, and it makes me cringe to see lights on in an empty classroom when I look down a corridor.
It also makes me a little angry to walk into a classroom to switch off the lights and hear the projector fan running.
I understand that not everyone is as crazy about conserving the Earth as others.
However, we should make the effort to conserve as much as possible and do our part to help our campus and our environment.
So separate your trash and switch off the lights and projectors. It really isn’t a difficult thing to do.
Think of all the ways our campus could put the money we’d save to use. Maybe we could even have new programs or better facilities.