Student recycling, a project of the Campus Stewardship Committee (CSC), is back up and running with its first collection day on Nov. 6. If students would like to get involved in recycling, they can pick up a bag for their dorm room from CSC in the student senate office. Bags will be available there throughout the year during the office’s regular hours. The bags will also be available to pick up at CSC’s booth at Bakertree on Nov. 1 from 12-4; feel free to contact any CSC member with questions.
CSC is a way to actively practice stewardship as students at Covenant College. We do not have our own homes, but we still produce waste and use electricity, so we can be in the mindset of caring for creation and learning for the future. CSC co-chair Rachel Dance is a senior Community Development major. She joined CSC believing that “stewardship is important because our resources are a gift; we are not entitled to what we have been given… My heart is for the CSC to be a way to encourage the student body to be intentional and thoughtful with the decisions we make.”
The main way that CSC practices stewardship is through recycling. After a bumpy start, the recycling program has been launched for the 2014-2015 school year. This program is for everyone, because everyone can recycle. Some have estimated that as much as 75% of what we throw away can be recycled. With the current recycling program through Santek, there are a variety of materials that Covenant students can recycle: paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and caps, and even glass. That means you can recycle old notes (even with staples), shipping boxes, and juice cartons. No sorting required. Simply put recyclables in the bag and place it outside the door once a week. A Mark 10:45 student will empty the bags into the large bin behind Maclellan-Rhymer. Students are welcome to put recyclables in this bin at any time, especially large cardboard waste, provided that they follow the guidelines for what can and cannot be recycled.
The most commonly used verse to support stewardship is Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” CSC believes that as stewards, Christians are not called to just look at the beauty God has made and make an ultimatum that no one touch it. We are called to manage it wisely so we can use it to benefit all creation, humanity included, and make sure it is available for future inhabitants of the earth.
Recycling is not the only function of CSC. Dance explains, “Some aspects of CSC are action-oriented, such as our recycling program or Project Clean Plate, while we also seek to provide opportunities for thoughtful dialogue following panel discussions or educational documentaries.” Project Clean Plate, which will happen next semester, will be a six-week initiative in the Great Hall to reduce food waste. CSC also plans to host a speaker from the faculty at Sewanee. The lecture, planned for mid-November, will be about the globalized economy and the environment. After a trial run last semester, facilities has graciously allowed CSC to continue having a recycle bin in Mills. Additionally, CSC hopes to expand its relationship with local farms in the area.
The Campus Stewardship Committee meets every Monday at 6:00 p.m. in Brock Hall 221. CSC is discussion-based and would love to hear your thoughts and ideas, or you can just listen in. Email CSC co-chair Conrad Meek at conrad.meek@covenant.edu with questions or for more information.