It is great that Northern Kentucky University is going green. NKU is making great strides in reduction of waste. But there is one thing students may not consider: After each semester the dorms have dumpsters full of useable items, residents left behind.

These items could be donated to Goodwill or offered on Freecycle.com, a Web site that people can use to offer unwanted items, or if they are in need of items they see another community participant has. This would be a good medium after classes let out.

The SAPR (Sociology, Anthropology, Philosophy, ‘ Religious Studies) Program has come up with yet another way to reduce waste.

How you may ask? If anyone on this campus distributes mail, then they know how much unwanted mail is distributed, how many trees are needlessly wasted for the sake of advertisement.

SAPR has come up with an idea to have all staff distribute all unwanted advertisement and solicitation in one bin.

Then the staff in SAPR will contact the spam and tell them we no longer subscribe to this publication and to cease sending the unwanted material.

Also, it plans to remove the names of staff members, who are no longer working at NKU, from mail listings.

What if every department would follow this example? It would be a major reduction of waste.

Also, if NKU would send all in-house mail electronically, that would also be a major step to further reduction.

Let’s pull together and do what is right for this campus and our environment. Please make an effort to recycle, reuse and donate unwanted items. Again, NKU is doing a fabulous job in reduction of waste – they should be applauded!

Kristen Franks Grad Student MLAS Program