By Drew Teague

UK is continuing its efforts be get people to “go green” while they continue to “see blue.”

New measures are being put in place on campus and in the residence halls to make the campus more sustainable.

Shane Tedder, UK’s sustainability coordinator, said UK recycled several tons of cardboard during the move-in weekend with the partnering of Campus Housing and the Office of Sustainability.

“We have not received all the weights yet, but I would estimate we recycled 14,000 to 16,000 pounds of boxes,” Tedder said.

Besides helping new students understand “going green” their first few days on campus, Tedder said there are many other initiatives at UK, including some colaboration with this year’s Common Reading Experience, “No Impact Man.”

Some highlights include reusable water bottles for all first-year students in support of the Common Reading Experience, the Davis Marksbury building receiving LEED Gold certification and the new bike lanes added around campus, he said.

There also were changes made to where students recycle in residence halls.

“Recycling in the residence halls switched to single stream over the summer, meaning that all recyclable material can be put into the same bin,” Tedder said. “This switch makes recycling much simpler and more convenient.”

Tedder said they changed this because students had to sort their recycling when they brought it to the bins. With the non-sorted bins, the recycling would need to be picked up more often.

“To accommodate the new system and the plan for daily collection of the bins, new recycling locations were selected for each hall,” Tedder said.

Alex Jennings, an undecided freshman who lives on South Campus, feels having recycling in the dorms as it is, is helpful.

“I think it’s a good idea because there are so many people on campus and so much waste,” Jennings said. “It proposes the idea to present a better community lifestyle. If people get in the habit of recycling while they are in college, those habits will transfer to home life. Then in the process it will get others to join in.”

Karla Kohel, a psychology and biology freshman, said it gives students a choice if they want to recycle.

“It allows you to make your own decision about recycling, but seeing as recycling is such a hot topic in today’s society, I think it’s important that it’s more enforced,” Kohel said.

For more information about UK’s Sustainability efforts visit sustainability.uky.edu.