A common problem for off-campus students is recycling. The city of Keene doesn’t have a truck to come around and pick up a house’s bottles and cans for mandatory recycling. Instead of throwing your recycle in the trash people can go to Keene’s Recycling Center.
Anna Heindl / Equinox staff
Keene’s Recycling Center is located off Route 12, at 55 Old Summit Road, Keene, NH. The center is open from Monday-Friday 7:00 to 3:00 P.M. and Saturdays 8:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M..
According to Keene’s website, items like steel cans, aluminum cans, glass, paper and scrap metals can be recycled for free. Tires, propane tanks, and electronics are items that will have a charge to recycle.
The Coordinator of Student and Community Relations at Keene State College Robin Picard has notice this has been an issue ever since she got her two years ago. Picard said her two goals are to give information and resources to students and upgrade the off campus housing.
“Recycling is an add on for the landlord, meaning people will come pick it up but for a fee,” Picard said. “And a lot of landlords don’t want to pay that extra fee.”
Picard’s thoughts were if the landlord’s notice recycling reduces trash, then maybe they would see it saves them money.
“I believe if students are speaking up than that could lever in making a difference,” Picard said. “There are more students than landlords and we need to do a better job in being aware of this problem.”
Two KSC seniors, Joseph Gaudette and Hanna Norton got together for their capstone projects on recycling.
Gaudette and Hanna focused on houses on Blake Street for four to five weeks to see which houses recycled and how much. The two students went and talked to each household on recycling and how important it is.
Hanna and Gaudette then gave each house a can crusher to encourage recycling. When Hanna and Gaudette talked to the landlord about what they were doing, they got a very negative response and decided to stop the project all together.
KSC junior management major Ian Lacey is a resident at the Mills of Keene. The Mills does not provide any sort of recycling according to Lacey. “My roommates and I used to bring our recycle to campus and get rid of it there,” Lacey said. “But that became an inconvenience for us.”
Lacey said that there is a dumpster at The Mills where he throws away all of his trash. When The Mills were asked about why they do not provide any recycling to residents they said they had no comment.
KSC junior Andrew Norton is a student who faces the struggle of recycling off campus. Andrew lives off campus and said, “It doesn’t make sense for a town like Keene not to have a recycling truck, in this day and age every town should have mandatory recycling.”
Andrew said he and his friends have set up a graveyard of bottles and cans in their basement. Once it fills up, they are going to bring them down to Massachusetts and exchange them for money.
“I think recycling is really important for the community,” Andrew said. “But it makes it really difficult to recycle when they take away the convenience of door pick up.”
Matthew Kahlman can be contacted at mkahlman@kscequinox.com