As the trees lose their color, our trash receptacles are just putting on a new shade of green. The Resource Conservation Team has been hard at work this week in a campaign to raise awareness about its new sustainability practices. Lining the bins are new green trash bags that are both biodegradable and less expensive than current clear trash liners.

Part of the campaign focuses on dispelling misnomers about recycling. One practical problem with the new green bags is that students can misinterpret their color to mean “recyclable.” Complex recycling rules present additional misconceptions. For example, coffee cups, because of their plastic coating, can’t be recycled. DeCafé smoothie containers, made of biodegradable plastic, can be composted but not recycled. Currently, both Oberlin College and the city of Oberlin recycle plastics 1 through 7, but exclude PLA plastics, which are a subset of number 7 plastics.

Because of opaque rules like these, education is another critical part of the RCT’s campaign.

“Recycling policy changes so frequently, [so] it’s difficult to keep the student body up -to-date,” said College junior Liam Leslie, an RCT member. He and other recycling advocates have been aggressively tabling in Mudd, asking students what they think they know about recycling. “Most people say ‘I already know everything,’ but they don’t.”

Misunderstanding rules often leads to accidental contamination, which can cause recyclables to be redirected into landfill. College junior Zach Crockford, another RCT member, told the Review that if non-recyclable items get mixed in with recyclable items, “it’s more expensive, and in at least some cases the entire bag gets thrown out.” The same is true if a student accidentally deposits trash in a recycling bin.

One big change that addresses this issue is the adoption of “waste stations.” The waste stations will combine receptacles for trash and recycling with the eventual goal of centralizing and consolidating how students recycle on campus. Funding for the waste stations will come largely from the Green Edge Fund, which supports environmental efforts on campus.

Crockford is optimistic about the stations, noting that they will “make people think about their waste more and show them that whenever they have the opportunity to throw something away, they also have the option to recycle it.”

The waste stations are slated to be installed in several buildings by the end of the current semester as part of a pilot program.

Next week, the RCT will begin a campaign called “We Recycle Because,” a program that seeks to educate students about the new system.