VCU’s Green Unity promotes electronic recycling

Last year, VCU recycled 47 tons of electronic waste. This year, members of Green Unity said the Richmond community is involved in their efforts with whole offices donating to the cause.

Mark Robinson
Assistant News Editor

Last year, VCU recycled 47 tons of electronic waste. This year, members of Green Unity said the Richmond community is involved in their efforts with whole offices donating to the cause.

In 2007, VCU recycled 25 tons of electronic-scrap waste. By 2010, the amount nearly doubled.

VCU’s Green Unity club is working to sustain the trend of electronic-recycling, or e-cycling, in the VCU community.

The first Thursday or Friday of each month, Green Unity holds a monthly e-cycling collection day. The group sets up a table outside of the library by Floyd Street and accepts electronic waste like old computers, cell phones, DVD players, kitchen appliances, batteries – anything electronic.

Photos by Mel Kobran

The donated materials are taken to the VCU Physical Plant Department, where the scrap is broken down so the reusable parts can be salvaged.

Many of the donated items contain heavy metals which, if not disposed of properly, can end up in landfills. Once there, toxins from the metals seep down into the earth, harming the soil.

“All of these precious metals are hard to mine, (and) it’s very expensive to mine them,” said Sean Williams, a senior psychology major working on the e-cycling initiative with Green Unity. “If we can recycle them, we can reduce the need for mining and reduce the degradation to the earth and soil.”

Green Unity works closely with the Office of Sustainability on the e-cycling initiative as a part of the larger VCU Goes Green initiative.

According to Jacek Ghosh, director of sustainability at VCU, the amount of e-waste recycled at VCU has been steadily climbing since 2007. In 2008, 34 tons were recycled. In 2009, the amount reached 37 tons. In 2010, VCU recycled 47 tons of electronic scrap.

Ghosh said he credits the increases to Green Unity’s work on the e-cycling initiative for the last few years.

“The support has been growing every time. We get more and more stuff somehow every time we come out,” Williams said. “It’s awesome.”

Green Unity member Melissa Lesh, a junior painting and printmaking major, said the e-cycling initiative is receiving support from the greater Richmond community.

“Now, we get whole offices that come out (to donate),” Lesh said. “It’s branched far beyond just the VCU community and students.”

Both Williams and Lesh said they hope to host the event once a month so people can come to expect to have an outlet to recycle their unused electronics.

Students like Brady Rall, an international studies major, have bolstered Green Unity’s efforts by donating whatever they can. In Rall’s case, it was an old blender.

“Recycling is important because people just accumulate junk. It’s the nature of our culture,” Rall said. “I think with (e-cycling) Green Unity is trying to suggest an alternative lifestyle to accumulation.”

Green Unity will continue to hold community cleanups and host the e-cycling donations once a month, Lesh said. Currently, the club is working to host a community market on Earth Day.

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