Global Warming - A.S. Recycling Services

Looking at a campus with dry, yellow-brown grass with pieces of paper all over and crushed cans, the view of the place is uneasy to the eye and unpleasant to look at. This is the college campus of California State University, Los Angeles. A campus that does not help prevent the causes of global warming.

On the contrary, if you see the campus at California State University, Northridge the atmosphere is green and clean. The Associated Students (A.S.) Recycling Services is part of the reason why the campus maintains its beautiful ambiance. A.S. Recycling Services allows the campus community to be a greener place and does their duty to help reduce the affects of global warming.

A.S. Recycling Services provides recycling services to California State University, Northridge. They help make the university a cleaner and eco-friendly environment. A.S. Recycling recycles cans, bottles, paper and more. By recycling and preventing waste, A.S. Recycling Services is reducing greenhouse gas emission.

Reported by the United States Environmental Protection Agency Web site, “reducing waste and recycling it can reduce methane emissions from landfills. Waste prevention and recycling (including composting) divert organic wastes from landfills, thereby reducing the methane released when these materials decompose. Waste reduction and recycling can also reduce emissions from incinerators.” Not only does recycling reduce greenhouse gas emission but it also saves energy and fewer fossil fuels are burned.

“…recycling and waste prevention allow some materials to be diverted from incinerators and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of waste. Recycling saves energy and reduces emissions from energy consumption. Manufacturing goods from recycled materials typically requires less energy than producing goods from virgin materials. Waste prevention is even more effective at saving energy. When people reuse things or when products are made with less material, less energy is needed to extract, transport, and process raw materials and to manufacture products. When energy demand decreases, fewer fossil fuels are burned and less carbon dioxide is emitted to the atmosphere,” according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency Web site.

The A.S. Recycling Services team is at work every school day. Salvador Preciado, the recycling team leader for A.S. Recycling Services said, “We pick up cardboard on campus, we have routes for bottles and cans daily. One day out of the week, we go around and check the paper bins that are all around campus and housing. Every day we go to a location where we pick up laser toner cartridges and after picking up bottles and cans, we sort them out,” as he concentrates on driving the recycling cart to one of the recycling bins.

As soon as we make a stop to one of the bins, Salvador opens it up with a key and dumps the material in the bin to the trunk of the cart. He gets back into the cart and drives to the next stop. Squinting his eyes from the sun, he says, “We reduce waste and we keep the campus cleaner by recycling itself. It is one aspect of reducing global warming it’s the most common.”

Not only does the recycling team pick up recycled material, but they educate the campus community. On the Associated Students Web site it explains that the purpose of the recycling services is to implement a comprehensive program to inform, educated and encourage the campus community to recycle. Also to set an example to others in the campus community by active participation to decrease adverse impacts on our environment and conserve precious natural resources.

The recycling services host annual events, Earth Fair and America Recycles Day to bring awareness. “America Recycles Day is November, we usually just promote for students to recycle more, and we table on campus and bring the event to students. Earth Fair is usually on the day of the national holiday, Earth Day, which is in April,” Salvador said.

Salvador continued, “We bring different people and environmental organizations for the Earth Fair…that help educate students to reduce global warming. Many of the organizations educate on different things. For example, not cutting trees, doing certain things different and informing about animals that are close to extinction.”

It is not only America Recycles Day and Earth Fair, when the recycling services educate the campus community. They reach out to the campus whenever they can. With a positive tone, Salvador said, “When we can…we try to do tabling for different campus events and we try to tell our classmates to recycle.”

The recycling services do their duty in educating as much as they can and recycling materials that are properly discarded, but not the whole campus population recycles with the recycling services and that can lower the possible expansion of the services. “We provide a lot of services, but the problem is that not even students use us to recycle. Since money is involved they prefer to recycle themselves, instead of the recycling program. The program can expand its just getting more support and awareness,” Salvador said.

How-to Manange Your Time

Is school and work becoming overwhelming to the point where you have no time for yourself, family or getting things done? Well it may be that you need work on your time management skills. Managing time wisely takes beating procrastination, prioritizing, making a to do list, planning and setting goals. It may be tempting for you do something more pleasurable than focusing on what needs to be done; this is the sign of procrastination.

According to the Web site, Mind Tools, “ Procrastinators feel overwhelmed by a task and may not know where to begin…they may feel that they're doing the right thing by reacting fast. Or they may not even think about their approach and simply be driven by the person whose demands are loudest. Either way, by doing this, they have little or no time left for the important tasks, despite the unpleasant outcomes this may bring about.” Prioritizing your tasks can help beat procrastination.

Knowing your important tasks and prioritizing them by the time constraints and level of significance can better your awareness of what should be done first. In the Web site, Study Guides and Strategies, it recommended to list your goals or objectives and ranging them in the order of importance from highest to lowest. You know what tasks you have and how much time you think the will take you to do, prioritize to have an ordered tasks list and to know exactly what to do first. Prioritizing is similar to a to-do list because you are listing what needs to be done.

To-do list are prioritized lists of all duties that need to be accomplished, like prioritizing, a to-do list should have the most important task at the top of the list. In Mind Tools, it stated, “…by keeping a to-do list, you make sure that you capture all of the tasks you have to complete in one place. This is essential if you're not going to forget things. And by prioritizing work, you plan the order in which you'll do things, so you can tell what needs your immediate attention, and what you can quietly forget about until much, much later.” A to-do list is a reminder of what needs to be done and it is a part of planning. Planning can be seen as a to-do list but planning is usually mapped out for daily, weekly and monthly duties or engagements.

Planning your day, week or month is significant for not forgetting what is coming up or needs to be done by a certain time. Alex Shalman, from practical personal development said, “No matter how much you accomplish, there will always be this feeling of having forgotten to do something else, possible something very important. Make it your habit: write your plans down!”

To make carry your plans out effectively, you must set realistic goals. Setting goals can motivate you and give you achievement with more focus. In Mind tools, goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn this vision of the future into reality. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that would otherwise lure you from your course.

If you are having trouble managing your time, set your goals to manage your time more wisely and plan, create a to-do list, prioritize and beat procrastination. From Darthmouth’s academic skills center is says, “managing your time allows you to gain time, motivate and initiates, reduces avoidance, promotes review, eliminates cramming and reduces anxiety.”

Patrick Introduces Jessica's Health Care Story

Elections Story

History has been made in the 2008 elections and we have elected our first colored President, Barack Obama. Many young voters have been a part of the difference of this change. For various students from the California State University, Northridge campus, they have chosen the Democratic Party hoping the economy will face a better turn.

“My vote was made on change. Facing the economic crisis, going with the same administration…we would go deeper into the hole. Hopefully with a different party, it will help the hole we’re in right now. This time college students and the youth vote in general made a difference and elected a new president,” said 23-year-old, engineer major, Luis Carbajo.

Like Carbajo, Kennedy Juarez is hoping the Democratic Party will give the country better results than the Republican Party. “I went with the Democratic Party and the Republican Party has been in effect for two terms and hasn’t showed much progress. I want to be the difference in the outcome of the country for the next four years, especially with our country facing a recession,” the computer science major said with optimism. Another student feels similar to Juarez on how development has not been made by the Republican Party.

“…I don’t think President Bush was a successful president. We haven’t seen other policies come up and with the recession, he hasn’t come up with a solution,” said biology major, Shaun Remaggio. Remaggio also believes Obama embodies minorities for opening more doors.

“Barack Obama is going to be the first colored president and if he screws up, he is representing other minorities. If he does a good job, he can be the change for other colored people to become president and other white dominated positions,” Remaggio said. The economy is an important factor in the voting process for many including marketing major, Scott Garcia and health sciences major, Ruffi Faigao.

“I looked at their ideals and tried to match it with mine and what I would do if I was in that position…I went with the Democratic Party. The way the economy is now, how horrible it is...I am hoping it will get better. Seeing how the past years have been bad and being able to vote for the first time is what made me go vote,” Garcia said.

“Our country is facing a recession and it is frustrating to know that Bush has not helped our economy in the 8 years he has served as president. I am glad to be able to vote for the first time and go with the Democratic Party,” Faigao said.

Many students have been a part of a change and they want to see our country’s economy improve. They have chosen the Democratic Party because of their disappointment from the Republican Party. History has been made on November 4, 2008 and young voters have been a part of history in the making.