Grant Proposal: Recycling For SCAD Dorms

Grant Proposal: Recycling For SCAD Dorms

To the Georgia Recycling Coalition

Program Summary

The youth care about recycling! At the Savannah College of Art & Design, the students are passionate about environmental health, sustainability, and using recycled materials. In many classes, I have witnessed fellow classmates create content calling for a greener way of life. After experiencing these personal displays of anger and frustration towards growing pollution and the climate crisis, it was shocking to discover that the closest SCAD on-site residence hall has no recycling bins. In the facility’s large trash rooms, there are three garbage cans and plenty of empty space. The students at SCAD are affected by the lack of recycling because they are contributing to the environmental crisis they often speak against. The educational environment that provides students their platform to speak on these climate issues, in class and in their work, is not conducive to the goals and messages of the students’ work. 

Now is a crucial time for students to develop their own strong values about maintaining a healthy lifestyle that impacts themselves, their immediate community, and the entire human experience. By exposing students to the act of recycling and providing accessible recycling bins, the Georgia Recycling Coalition will, in collaboration with SCAD, be promoting environmentally sustainable habits for current and future generations. If recycling is encouraged now, students will continue to recycle after moving out of residence halls. Students will also feel they are helping fight the climate crisis that fellow peers often speak against in class. 

I propose that recycling bins are implemented in the trash rooms of every residential floor of SCAD FORTY, to promote recycling within the dorm rooms. In addition, I propose that shelving units also be placed in the trash rooms, to provide a space for unwanted items that are still usable, such as left-over paper supplies, fabric scraps, ripped portfolio bags, or outgrown clothes. Instead of simply throwing away these salvageable materials, students can promote a residential community that donates, reuses, and recycles materials while saving money and creating less waste.

Environmental Distress 

Everyday at SCAD, busy students are utilizing their meal plans two to three times a day, and often getting meals to go. However, every to-go meal served at the SCAD FORTY cafe comes in a single-use plastic container, which means one student will go through up to three single-use plastic containers per day. There is roughly 70 days in one academic quarter at SCAD, which means an average student, buying to-go meals at the FORTY cafe 2-3x a day, would end up throwing away about 180 single-use plastic containers a quarter. If we took this number and multiplied it by the number of students living in FORTY, that is enough single-use plastic containers to fill a small landfill. 

Under the pressure of SCAD’s rigorous programs, students often don’t have time to sit down and eat a meal in the main dining hall, where there is reusable dining ware. Until the FORTY cafe can offer the same dining experience, it is imperative these single-use plastics have a chance to be recycled and reused.

Program Activities and Goals

By providing mixed recyclables bins for the students, the dorm’s waste production will lessen. I believe the residential community will take action against pollution and utilize these bins daily. With the addition of a donation shelving unit, the students will be able to easily donate unwanted items to be used by other students. The access to recycling and donating will promote a call to action for all residents and employees at SCAD Forty to take action against the environmental consequences of our waste. Students will develop positive and sustainable living habits in college that will stick with them the rest of their lives.

Program Cost

SCAD FORTY is a fourteen story building, with one trash room per floor and a need for two large recycling bins and one shelving rack per floor.