In elementary school, students were taught the adage, “reduce, reuse, recycle.”

Yet, as midterms week rolls around each semester, pizza boxes litter apartments and are piled in dumpsters, along with pounds of trash just waiting to be picked up.

Some students at BYU-Idaho feel ignorance is to blame.

“No one thinks recycling is important because they don’t realize how much they waste,” said Kevin Brown, a senior from Seattle, Wash.

Learning the hard facts about waste can be sobering.

In 2003, U.S. residents, businesses and institutions produced more than 236 million tons of municipal solid waste or approximately 4.5 pounds of waste per person per day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have counseled members to become more environmentally conscious.

Elder G. Michael Alder of the Quorum of the Seventy said Heavenly Father is no less pleased with our destruction of nature than when we break the Word of Wisdom.

“It seems to me that part of our responsibility as caretakers for the earth is to … take advantage of opportunities to protect our world’s resources,” Elder Alder said in an article in the July 1991 Ensign.
In recent years, however, recycling has gained momentum. Today, the United States recycles 28 percent of its waste, according to the EPA.

BYU-I also has a recycling program that collects paper, newspaper, batteries, oil, compost and cardboard.

Darin Lee, co-chairman of the program, has been involved for six years and said students can also get involved.

“In the past, we’ve had drives and had people help in that way, but the best way for students to help is by recycling the Scroll,” Lee said.

Alder also had suggestions for other ways to contribute. He recommended reducing personal consumption of energy, water and other scarce resources.

He also advised members to stop using products that damage the environment and to learn more about natural processes and earth science.

Finally, he said to adopt a “conservation rather than a consumption attitude.”

For more information, see a Scroll editor’s opinion on recycling practices at BYU-Idaho.