Imagine a campus where most of our energy came from solar power, where we could recycle and our campus would be near sparkling clean.

In a time of a economic downturn, could that dream campus be realized?

Most people have heard about global warming and pollution.

Students and teachers should collaborate and make the campus more environmentally friendly.

Ed Martinez, public access librarian, said the campus needs to focus on recycling efforts such as designated spaces for glass, plastic, aluminum and paper are a necessity.

Martinez added that even

though a lack of resources has strained efforts, it seems student’s are still motivated to improve campus efficency.

“Recycling doesn’t have to be a costly activity,” Martinez said. “As friends of the Earth, we need to protect our Earth by recycling.”

Martinez was in charge of the Recycling Task Force on campus before it was disbanded for unknown reasons.

Recycling of plastic, aluminum, and glass is often done by the homeless or others who wander to campus to pick through the trash for extra cash.

“We need more recycling bins on campus that are visible to the public,” Henry James, 28-year old art major said. “We need more student awareness of how to make the campus more eco-friendly.”

By thinking green, said Laurie Bongard,communications major, we are going to live longer, cleaner, and better. Recycling is just one way we can make our school a little greener.

“We are saving the planet by recycling,” Bongard, said.

Bongard added that more recylcing bins could be provided on campus.

“We are being considerate of the Earth, therefore we will live healthier and longer,”she said.

Bongard also said carpooling among students and faculty would decrease the amount of cars on campus. This would possibly improve air quality and make the campus more desirable for students and visitors.

“I think that the average student is uninformed about the environment,” James said. That same student doesn’t understand how these issues affect them”. I don’t think that we are driving the point hard enough to these students. We can’t destroy our environment.”

Students and faculty have also mentioned that we can minimize waste on campus. The waste of paper can be decreased considerably.

Frequent posting of paper fliers on campus walls and doors are often not read.

“There are other ways to notify students besides paper fliers,” Martinez said. “We can start sending more messages electronically to eliminate a lot of the paper waste.”

“We have made eco-friendly strides on our campus but we have not reached the plateau that other colleges,” have James added.

East Los Angeles College will be generating 45 percent of the college’s energy from solar panels that are being placed in the parking lot. If funding was available on our campus would it be feasible for El Camino to install them?

“It’s possible that we could power a building by solar panels, if the funding was available,” James said. “Anything that decreases our carbon footprints perhaps will make the environment around us cleaner.”

Bongard expressed the same sentiment adding Solar Panels are an eco-friendly investment that possibly could pay themselves off in several years. Not to mention the positive environmental aspects of the solar panels.

“It seems like money is more important than (the campus being) green,” Martinez said.