With 220 recycling boxes in Old Main, officials at WTAMU hope to expand their ‘go green’ efforts to each building on campus and get the whole University involved. Results can already be seen after the first week of a pilot recycling program which started with a mining tire equipment to recycle rubber in the offices parking and departments of Old Main.

“We have only picked one time, they recycled close to five hundred pounds just in that building of paper,”Chris Bunnett, president and chief executive officer for KB Recycling, said.“And that will increase.”

Gary Barnes, vice president for business and finance, said in a report that even though the collection was successful there were about twenty five offices that KB Recycling was unable to pick up the collected paper. Also, approximately twenty individuals did not have anything in their recycling bins.

Previously, WT had a student led recycling program started by Tim Vela, current Student Body President, but there was not a business in the area that specialized in picking up recyclable materials.

“About a year and a half ago, Tim Vela sent me an e-mail and asked if we can start a recycling program,”President of WT, Dr. J. Patrick O’Brien said.“We started to look. First, no one was doing it in Amarillo, we had to ship to Dallas. But then a new business started; we contact them and started this fall.”

The partnership with KB Recycling will not only allow WT to expand paper recycling throughout campus, but to recycle other materials as well.

“We are also looking on expanding to more than just paper,” Dr. O’Brien said.

But this is not the only green project that WT is developing. For the future, WT is also planning on implementing alternative energy projects.

“We are also looking on putting a wind turbine on the Nance Ranch to power operations in there,”Dr. O’Brien said.

These recycling projects will help protect the environment and also raise awareness in the community.

“We want to make recycling convenient and educate kids about the importance of it,“Bunnett said.“Getting WT on board has been really good for us because it encourages other business, schools and individuals to start recycling.”