Student hauls recyclables

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    By Daniel Monson

    With a car full of trash, Rolf Straubhaar is a traveling nomad seeking a place to recycle what many people would simply throw away.

    When the recycling pile in his apartment gets too big for his roommates to stand, Rolf Straubhaar moves it to his car.

    ?I started covering it with a tarp because my car began to look hobo?ish,? said Straubhaar, a 23-year-old senior from Austin, Texas studying anthropology. ?People always wonder what I am covering in the back of my car. Sometimes I joke that it?s a dead body.?

    Recycling is an issue for Provo apartment dwellers like Straubhaar who are not offered recycling pickup through the city.

    Upon transferring from Texas? Rice University, Straubhaar used campus recycling for simple items such as paper and cans, but could not find a place to recycle his plastic and glass items.

    Provo City began a general recycling program in September 2003, and has attempted to offer the service to apartments.

    ?We tried a recycling program to apartments a couple of years ago,? said Scott Peppler, public services manager for Provo City. ?People were contaminating the loads so bad with garbage in the recycling bins, we had to stop.?

    The absence of such a program for apartments leaves Straubhaar with little options.

    ?Frankly, I am surprised there is little recycling in Utah,? Straubhaar said. ?I have been all over the place – Texas, Michigan, California ? and Utah seems to be the hardest place to try and recycle of these places.?

    Straubhaar?s parents, both university professors, taught him not to give up on his convictions.

    Serving as vice-president of the BYU Democrat?s club and co-president of the Students for International Development club, Straubhaar feels that it is important to stand by one?s beliefs and convictions. He began looking for friends that would help him to recycle.

    Initially, several friends offered to help, but Straubhaar felt he had too much recycling and didn?t want to be a burden.

    Ashley Smith, a 20-year-old geography major and president of the student club EcoResponse, finally insisted that he use her house to unload his recycling for the fall semester.

    ?I played in bands, and band members would have to haul my drums in their cars cause mine was usually full of recycling,? Straubhaar said.

    Winter semester came and Straubhaar asked Suzy Cook, a 20-year-old from North Carolina majoring in political science, to help him recycle. Her house had recently purchased a recycling contract.

    ?The first time I met Rolf, his car was disgusting ? full of newspapers and milk jugs, I seriously thought he was homeless,? Cook said. ?He let me know he needed to do something about it, and we recycled at my house together.?

    This semester, Suzy has moved to an apartment, and Straubhaar found a new recycling friend in fellow recycler Annie Kershisnik, a senior from Kansas City majoring in English.

    ?I was excited that someone else was gung-ho about recycling, and shocked that he had so much in his car,? said Kershisnik. ?I recycle because it makes sense. I am not a tree-hugger, but we have resources and shouldn?t waste them.?

    He doesn?t really have a plan. If the recycling pile gets big enough to fill his car, he may ask Annie to help him again. If not, then the search for a new recycling contact may begin anew.

    In time, new programs to offer recycling to apartments may be in the future for Provo and BYU. Until then apartment recyclers will still look for creative opportunities to be eco-friendly.

    ?On one level it?s fun, like a scavenger hunt,? Straubhaar said. ?But on the practical level, of all BYU students, it?s ridiculous. I know a lot of people that don?t recycle because it?s too much of a hassle. If the opportunity were there, I think more people would take it.?

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