Sarah Hussain/Pioneer
Chris Tampkins, cyber security major, uses the recycling machine located in the Main Building.

Recycling at OCCC began with a single box sitting outside of a professor’s office. Now because of the hard work put forth by the Green Task Force, the OCCC campus is going green.

Librarian Rachel Butler walked into Thursday night’s News Writing class recently with a book entitled “Big Thirst” slung under her arm. She came to tell students about the college’s efforts to help the environment.

As a member of the Green Task Force, started by Executive Vice President Jerry Steward in 2009, Butler works to make OCCC a green campus.
Between discussing statistics from her book about wasting water and her own personal attempts to go green, Butler shared the large and small changes OCCC is making.

“Over time it showed that volunteers offering recycling boxes outside of their offices was not going to really do much good,” she said.

“We need more resources than that.”

One of the resources that OCCC has put into action is a partnership with Pepsi. Installed in January, Dream Machines are recycling bins placed around campus for students to put their empty beverage containers in.

“The front of it tells you that they take a little bit of money off the top and it goes to veterans trying to start their own businesses,” Butler said.

Not only do the Dream Machines help the environment, but also they support the community.

Not all of the changes are as big as the green machines.

A logo that Butler describes as “simple” still makes an impact on the college.

The green logo is situated at the bottom of emails to remind people they don’t have to print everything and to think about using less paper, Butler said.

These small changes may not send money to veterans, but they do save money in supply costs and keep unneeded copies out of the trash.

With all of these changes made to the campus, the Green Task Force isn’t done. The task at hand now is spreading the word to faculty, staff and students.

“This committee is a sign of additional acceptance,” Butler said.

“It takes a lot of education and slow steps to get people to change things.”

With the continued work being done  by the Green Task Force, OCCC is becoming a more environmentally friendly campus.

There are more ideas and plans the group is working with, in hopes to continue the “go green” initiative on campus.

To contact Evin Morrison, email onlineeditor@occc.edu.