Trash Cans in the Study Rooms

I received a suggestion to place trash cans in the Group Study Rooms today. While this seems a very reasonable suggestion, I talked with Ray Francis in Facilities Planning and Maintenance and he helped me realize that there are some very good reasons not to have trash cans in these rooms. Besides the space crunch in the rooms there has been some ecological thinking behind the decision not to have trash cans in the rooms.

Ray told me that years ago the campus went from wastebaskets everywhere to recycling stations in many locations. This provided the opportunity for the user to recycle (source recycling) thus improving the rate of recycling and reducing the waste going to the landfill. Doing so did force the population to walk a short distance to recycle/discard any item.

Recycling station placement almost guarantees everyone will pass a recycling station in the course of their normal travel. By keeping trash and recycling bins together people are given the opportunity to decide to recycle rather than toss out that paper or pop can. Having just a trash can in those rooms would make it much easier just to throw something away rather than thinking twice and recycling. The rooms are just too small for an array of bins.

John