The number of people using campus recycling opportunities is not high this semester.

We don’t think that community members are being careless, but that they simply aren’t aware of the recycling our campus has.

Sodexo launched the new “Bring Back the Bottle” campaign to encourage students to recycle their plastic bottles by taking them back to cashiers after finishing their drink.

However, many students seem unaware of the campaign due to a lack of information about it.

If we truly want to make a difference for the environment and within our campus community, we need to ensure that we are communicating information well.

The more visible and vocal campus recycling organizers are, the more people will choose to participate.

For example, it seems that some community members are having trouble distinguishing recycling bins from other bins on campus.

Adding graphics to the bins may help.

Another reason people may struggle to recycle is the confusion surrounding what is allowed to be put in bins.

Items like shredded paper and sheets of paper smaller than the standard letter size apparently are no longer accepted and contaminate the bins, which seems to be putting too much of a restriction on what can or cannot be recycled.

Unless adjustments are made, community members may be better off recycling at off-campus locations that accept more items.

For campus recycling to work at Pitt-Johnstown, guidelines need to be made clear, so people know what to recycle, where to recycle and how to recycle. If not, the campus isn’t as helpful to the planet.