Many people are still not aware of the importance of recycling. And, despite the prevalence recycling at home in the Oakland Bay Area, many Peralta students and faculty remain confused about what exactly can be recycled in Peralta’s recycling bins. Even the handful of self-proclaimed recycling experts may pause to consider some everyday items. A juice-box, for example: paper exterior, plastic coated interior… does that mean it’s recyclable? Raising awareness and educating the community about recycling at Peralta is the mission of the Colleges’ 2nd class of Recycling Education Interns.

Brhett Skipper

Brhett Skipper

Berkeley City College

Brhett Skipper currently takes courses at Berkeley City College to gain more skills to augment his experiences in music and massage therapy. He is a licensed massage therapist and envisions opening his own massage therapy practice one day.

Kathy Adams

Kathy Adams

College of Alameda

Kathy Adams has a love of singing jazz music. She currently attends classes at College of Alameda and works as a student employee at the Administration and Records building in the Cougar Village portables. She hopes to sing at Yoshi’s in the near future.

Ceressa Allen

Ceressa Allen

Laney College

Ceressa has been an active member of Laney College for the last two years, earning in that time an AS and an AA. She has worked as an Instructional Aid in the Technology Center and the Writing Center. Ceressa loves dance and choreography, and has taken classes in jazz, modern. Ms. Allen plans to attend San Francisco State University for a B.A. in Health Education.

Tiana Drisker

Tiana Drisker

Laney College

Tiana was a registered Dental Assistant with 1 year of experience when she enrolled received an AA in Liberal Arts from Laney College. She kept on working through her degree, splitting time between her role as a registered dental assistant, student, and EOPS student aid. Most recently, she has been able to utilize her 6+ years experience as an Instructor at Western Career College’s Dental Assistant Program.

Jennifer Jordan-Wong

Jennifer Jordan-Wong

Merritt College

Jennifer Jordan-Wong is a graduate of UCLA and currently a student in the Environmental Program getting her AA in Human Ecology, Policy, Planning and Environmental Justice. She also works as a student aide in the Environmental Program, and is a research assistant at the Brower Dellums Institute for Sustainable Policy Studies. She is passionate about sustainability and loves teaching creative reuse arts and crafts. You can find her at the Self Reliant House, at meetings of Merritt’s student green club The Land and The People, and wherever there are puppies and ice cream.

Recycling bins at College of Alameda

This past August, nearly $250,000 of indoor and outdoor recycling bins purchase by Peralta’s Department of General Services began appeared at all the Peralta Colleges’ in outdoor walkways and in classrooms. General Services had been collaborating, for over a year, with college custodial supervisors and business managers in designing a recycling protocol that would work with the staffing levels available in the District.

With a draft system agreed upon in August, General Services staff followed through on their long-standing intention to purchase and deploy the bins.

Sustainability Organizer Jack Lin and 10 temporary student employees — with funding by Director of Maintenance and Operations Bob Beckwith and with the support of Warehouse staff and the colleges’ custodial staff — spent three full weeks placing bins in every classroom, lab, and commons area. The work crews sorted and delivered nearly 1000 indoor recycling bins to

At Merritt College, the most notable waste diversion trends in 2007 year were:

• Huge increase in recycling beverage containers
• Huge increase in recycling cardboard
• Expected disappearance of construction and demolition debris
• Expected disappearance of MRF

Until 2007, Merritt College was the only campus who has had a dedicated staff person making sure that all the recyclables — cardboard, paper — were collected from around the campus. That person is now-retired classified staff, Jim Harding. According to Mr. Harding, the College did try recycling cans and bottles in order to comply with the State’s Bottle Bill (AB75), but rodents, ants, gnats and bees hindered Jim’s and the custodians’ best efforts.

Recycling bins were installed throughout the campus between August and September 2008. A study will forthcoming on the use and effectiveness of the bins. Merritt head custodian Felix Smith has also reported that the college has not filled all of its custodial positions, and therefore has inadequate staffing to fully run the cleaning protocol, let alone the recycling protocol, which requires that the evening custodians would empty the recycling bins simultaneously with the trash bins.

Currently, Merritt College is also the only campus to have a compactor dedicated to collecting recyclable materials. NorCal Waste Services of Alameda County lent the compactor in May 2008 to conduct a pilot study on the cost-effectiveness of installing comparable compactors at other colleges. Since the cost of a new compactor is approximately $30,000, NorCal believed it would be prudent to estimate the cost savings of such a program before implementing it at other campuses.

To date, the compactor is not well used. A large amount of cardboard, currently sitting in the utility hallways underneath R-building, remains to be taken to the compactor. The compactor also has not been emptied, indicating a complete lack of use or a very low amount of recyclables generated on the campus.

Merritt College Summary

The most notable trends in the 2007 waste diversion data are

1. The start of beverage container recycling
2. Resumption of mixed office paper recycling
3. Decrease in cardboard recycling
4. One time increases in construction and demolition debris

Merritt College Diversion Details