Sustainability options while at college can feel limited but even small choices make a big difference.
Recycling within dorms and academic buildings is not the only resource available to students looking to become environmentally sustainable.
Senior Natalie Staritz, a sustainable development major, said that despite on-campus efforts to encourage recycling, there is a lack of education about where things can be disposed of.
She pointed out that another system available to Taylor students is the compost pile outside of Randall. Students interested in participating will typically collect scraps and then bring them over.
She suggests that students reduce, reuse, recycle — and in that order. Manufacturing a reusable water bottle, for instance, creates more carbon emissions than a plastic one, so these items must be held on to, not just replaced every year.
“Be mindful of how much you're consuming,” Staritz said. “Take a week and make sure to make note of every single-use item that you're using. And then after that week is done, look back and … (see the) perspective that you can gain.”
Junior Maddie Borchelt, an environmental science major, thinks that Taylor has regressed in the past couple of years and would love to see recycling accessibility back in the Larita Boren Campus Center. She said as Christians, commanded to tend the earth, we should be the leaders of the sustainability movement.
While the school has work to do, she encourages students to take small actions that make big differences. Recommendations include recycling and composting; picking up trash and being mindful of actions.
Borchelt acknowledges that these choices can be an inconvenient hassle sometimes but said they are worth it.
“If it's something you really care about, you'll take the time to do it,” Borchelt said.
Michael Guebert, professor of geology and environmental science, said that people often use more water resources than they need to.
From 2018 to 2021, looking at the months of the academic year, the university consumes nearly 3 million gallons of water a month. This is roughly equivalent to every resident student, non-resident employee and all other users on campus using 50 gallons of water a day.
While Upland currently has plenty of groundwater resources, excessive use also adds to the expenses the university pays to the town of Upland. To cut down on this, students can take actions such as shortening showers.
Another action students can take to maintain water resources is keeping vehicles well maintained to prevent oil leakages that contaminate water.
Additionally, future homeowners can be conscientious about what pesticides they use for lawns.
Guebert said that farmers do have a responsibility to look at the products they use, but they are often unfairly blamed for city people’s misuses of fertilizers and pesticides. Non-farmers have fewer restrictions for what they can use, and they are not trained in how to use them. This then creates urban runoff.
For those wanting to learn more and get involved, they can join the student-led “Stewards of Creation” club or participate in the club's Earth Day event on April 23. Another way to learn more is by taking classes such as SUS 120: Environmental Stewardship, a seminar-style class with guest speakers (only one credit and offered in the spring), and SUS 200: Environment and Society.
The university also has a 148-acre nature reserve behind Randall, and students can use this space and the new trails there to get some “NatureRX” or outdoor time to help with anxiety and depression.
Sophomore Easton Reed, a sustainable development major, wants to see more students care about the actions they are taking. Reed has witnessed skepticism of people from his hometown that sorted recycling is actually staying sorted, but he noted that at Taylor there are recycling processes in place. People just need to care enough to use them.
“I think the first step overall is being familiar with the general idea of environmental care and environmental stewardship, because that's kind of where the root of everything will change,” Reed said.
Reed emphasized that change does not always lie in science and technology – it is in the attitudes and perspectives cultivated today.
