Two teams of Greensboro College students took a dive for recycling on Jan. 28 during the school's first-ever Dumpster Dive, an action-packed event designed by the Student Government Association (SGA) and the City of Greensboro's Environmental Services Department to kick off a new campus-wide recycling program. Competing in a three-minute race to sort the most recyclable items from a dumpster filled with cardboard boxes and transparent green recycling bags, students learned which items they can recycle in their residence hall rooms, and which to toss in the trash. 
I didn't even know what chipboard was, much less that I could recycle it, I said junior Maurice Plante, referring to the paperboard used to make most food boxes, such as cereal and cracker boxes. I also learned that we should throw the lids to opened food cans in the trash because they are so sharp.
The result of SGA's determination to implement a permanent recycling program on the College's campus, the Dumpster Dive will be followed by 22 blue recycling bins placed in all residence halls and classroom and administrative buildings. An SGA Recycling Committee will oversee the program, issuing monthly emails to remind and encourage the College community to recycle cardboard and paper products; plastic bottles; glass containers; and aluminum, tin and aerosol cans.
The act of recycling betters and saves our society, said SGA President Ashley Roseboro. We Ive gotten so used to using things like paper and throwing them away that soon there won't be any more natural resources to produce the staples we've become so accustomed to in our lives.
Right now, a lot of the college campuses are doing a little recycling, but not to the depth that Greensboro College will be doing, said Jackie Shoffner, a representative of the City of Greensboro Environmental Services Department who helped plan the event. We applaud Greensboro College for taking this giant step, and we hope it will inspire other campuses and large businesses to start recycling.
Even though he was on the losing team in the Dumpster Dive, senior Danny Mackey remains eager and enthusiastic about recycling.
We are the future. If we don't start taking care of the environment now, who will? And when? said Mackey. We come to college to be educated and to learn to become future leaders in the world. Recycling is a way to help save the environment, and to be leaders in our community and the world. Putting an aluminum can into a recycling bin may seem like a tiny action, but it has a huge effect on the planet.
Nancy Jimerson, interim superintendent of the city's Solid Waste Management Division, and Shannon Mapp, solid waste education specialist, judged the recycling contest, examining each heap of sorted bottles, newspapers and boxes for inappropriate items, such as soiled pizza boxes or lids on plastic bottles, that would lower the team's score. In return for their successful dumpster diving efforts, SGA awarded each member of the winning team a $30 gift certificate to Friendly Shopping Center.
For more information about the City of Greensboro's recycling program contact Jackie Shoffner at 336-373-2641 or call the city's Recycling Hotline at 336-335-5444.
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