Woody Eckels has been at the College since 1991 and is part of a Resource Working Group (composed of other mid-high level administrators from FOM, the Dean of the College office, Facilities Planning, Purchasing, DDS and Dartmouth Recycles).
Jeannine: Can you tell me a little about the history of Dartmouth Recycles?
Woody: Dartmouth Recycles, which Lisa Ashworth is now heading up, began with recycling rooms in the basements of individual dorms. By reducing waste disposal costs incurred primarily through "tipping fees" that the dump charges, the program initially payed for itself. However, there are costs to it: for example, there are still the handling fees of collecting the recyclables and particularly once waste warriors were installed on the floors of the dorms, the custodians were spending about eight hours a week trucking it all down to the basement recycling rooms. So we're still looking for cost-effective ways of having convenient recycling in the residence halls. For example, we're now having student volunteers, the ECO-reps, bringing the recyclables left in the waste warriors down to the basement once a week.
 |
| This is what a waste warrior looks like. |
| The different slots are for, as indicated on labels that you can't see on the picture, Newspaper, HDPE 1 plastic Soda & Water bottles, Clear Glass, and White Paper. |
| They are specially designed and the fire department has to approve their placement in the hallways. |
J: What are some of the environmental innovations that are being made in the dorms?
W: We're making the move to having certified wood in the dorms. The process of certification, which means that the wood is grown and handled according to environmental regulations, is a costly and complicated one. The college forester, the director of purchasing, and residential life administrators are all involved in the process of bringing this development to the college without an increase in costs. This summer in fact, we will log part of the college and grant land, and mill and dry the wood at a factory in Lisbon NH for the new furniture in the Gold Coast. We also hope to use our own certified wood for the trim and furniture in the new residence hall which we'll start building right after commencement this year. In terms of that new dorm, we've made an environmental engineer part of the planning and design team. That way those suggestions can actually be taken into account from the building's inception.
J: Do you feel that there is personal commitment to environmentalism at Dartmouth in the administration ?
W: There is a great deal of personal investment on the part of administrators at the college when it comes to being conscious, and conscientious, about environmental concerns. We are committed to helping make this happen. It would be so easy to make no effort or just say no when students come to us with suggestions or ideas. But many of us are willing to take those chances in order to see which ones will be successful and which ones can be made to work with some modifications.
Go back to the main winter page.