Several recycling bins, located at the Student Services Center and the Industry and Technology Building, were placed on site during the spring semester at El Camino College.

The cardboard bins, costing no more than $10, were purchased by the Associated Student Organization (ASO), student director of Student Services, Sean Min, said.

“Recycling has been a pretty large issue. This has been an issue on El Camino for years,” Min said. “There’s never been recycling.”

The bins were placed in these areas, but students were not aware of their placement.

“I don’t think people notice them, so it doesn’t really matter,” radiologic technology major, Genesis Raco, said.

Despite sitting so close to them, nursing major, Kayla Hunt, did not notice the bins either.

“I’ve actually never seen it,” Hunt said.

ASO’s attempts for more recycling bins and new ways to foster environmental change on campus have been introduced at sustainability meetings and promoted to the Inter-Club Council (ICC).

They have been trying to find ways to encourage clubs to advocate recycling in their own methods, like decorating recycling bins, Min said.

With ASO’s Sustainability Committee pushing for more ways to implement recycling and sustainability, Facilities has also been working to find procedures that raise public awareness.

“They do have a plan. It’s not definite, but they do have the motive right now,” Min said.

The waste and diversion program that Facilities oversees, uses a system in which the trash on campus is sorted through to ensure that the recyclables go to the proper place.

“All of our trash, 100 percent of our trash that you put in a bin either outside or inside of an office, goes to a facility where it’s hand sorted and all of it is recycled at this point,” vice president of administrative services, Brian Fahnestock, said.

The trash that people throw away on campus is taken to an off-site location where glass, plastic, aluminum, and compost are separated.

“More than 80 percent of all the trash that goes in the trash cans on our campus is recycled,” Fahnestock said.

The waste diversion program at El Camino is very successful, but because people don’t see the recycling containers, their assumption is that recycling is not being done.

“We want to see students care. It’s really our time to show that we are thinking sustainable and wanting to live in a cleaner environment, ultimately,” Min said.

Update: 12 noon, Tuesday, Oct. 23. The title of a source was change for accuracy.