“Wolf village is built upon a heap of human waste.”

“Those wonderful Styrofoam cups, keeping cold drinks cold and hot drinks hot, cannot be recycled.”

“No product can be made of 100 percent paper.”

These are only a few of the environmental myths floating around campus, flitting in and out of students’ ears. Like the game of telephone where messages evolve through a line of giggling elementary school children, some of these myths have become an incredibly distorted version of the truth. And some are simply fabrications created by overly active imaginations.

Searching for the truth about the environmental state of our campus, our city, our state, our country and our world is all about the truth amidst the propaganda.

As Dr. Daniel Graham, professor of environmental law and politics states, “Informing yourself is step number one, which is not always the most comfortable thing to do, because if the news is bad it’s not something you want to keep reading about.”

With the help of specialists on our campus such as Dr. Graham and Lindsay Killian, recycling coordinator of the Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling, the complicated truth (at least about NCSU) has begun to emerge.

According to the Office of Waste Management, Wolf Village is in fact NOT built on an old garbage dump. Everyone currently residing there can now exhale; the apartments will not be collapsing due to a decomposing foundation. State has always used the same North Raleigh landfill as everybody else. A problem does exist though, as Killian stated, “soon NCSU will have to find a new site for their collected garbage.”

Trash naturally decomposes, but the amount of time needed for the breakdown far exceeds the amount given, causing landfills to become packed. Environmentalists recognized the serious problems of overflowing garbage and pollutants, and created what Dr. Graham calls “a big paradigm shift [in thought] going against the mentality we’ve had for the past few decades.”

The shift Dr. Graham is alluding to involves the populace’s need to reflect on whether they consider themselves, “as guests on the planet versus owners of the planet.”

State has taken this new philosophy to heart. Professors and students in the engineering fields have begun trying to mimic the way nature works, creating more environmentally neutral technologies.

Guidelines for these new technologies follow scientific principals, such as the laws of thermodynamics and the four laws of ecology.

Angela Felker, a junior in material science engineering, stated the first two laws of thermodynamics, “the first law of thermodynamics states that energy is always conserved, and the second law states that entropy in a system always increases.”

And why are they important in engineering endeavors?

“In order to develop new technology concerning the environment you have to understand what energy is,” Felker said. “You cannot simply create energy, it has to be harnessed. The first law reassures us that energy is never destroyed; it is simply transformed. We must learn to convert the energy we use into something useful and reusable.”

Dr. Graham referred to the four laws of ecology as, “1) Nothing can really be thrown away, 2) Nothing is free, 3) Everything is connected, and 4) Nature knows best.”

Most of those speak for themselves, but “Nature knows best?”

“The balances we have in nature between the animal kingdom, plant kingdom, different species, predator, prey, etc., have been built up over millions upon millions of years of trial, error, evolution and development,” Dr. Graham explained. “And there is a reason why they work well.”

The issue of recycling Styrofoam remains a little more complicated — this is one of those myths rooted in fact. “Styrofoam actually can be recycled,” Killian stated. “But the process is much more difficult than most commonly recycled materials.”

Because of this, the streams used by the Office of Waste Reduction and Management do not include Styrofoam — so Styrofoam at NCSU equals non-recyclable.

Recycling streams determine the materials recycled. The State Office focuses on three main streams: commingled, office paper and mixed paper. “Commingled includes mostly cans and bottles made of glass, aluminum, plastic and steel. Office paper is typically envelopes, writing and computer paper,” Killian explained. “Mixed paper incorporates everything from newspapers and magazines, to phonebooks and hard backed books, to cardboard and chipboard.”

Styrofoam aside, the University’s program has been incredibly successful. Currently, the University sponsors two major recycling programs: bins inside academic buildings, and Chuck it! during football games.

“You can always say you can do more. You can always do better,” Killian said. “But as far as rates go our campus is doing really well, we have about a 40 percent recycling rate, which is the governor’s mandate for all government agencies.”

Dr. Graham, Killian and the green community agree that the most important realization people can have about recycling is its position as the last of three significant steps. A person’s psyche should consider reducing and reusing before the end result of recycling.

Reducing considers how much trash by-products are generating. Dr. Graham suggests ways to limit harmful consumerism, “shop for less packaging, environmentally benign packaging, and products that are energy efficient.”

The next logical step is to reuse products with shelf life longer than a single employment. The one liter water bottles so in vogue around campus can be used many times. Plastic silverware, cups and plates can be cleaned and reused rather than subjugated to the trash after only one use.

“Recycling isn’t going to save the world by itself, but it is a step in the right direction and it reinforces a different attitude,” Dr. Graham said.

When all the paper, cans, bottles and more end up at the paper stock or MRF, not all the materials are usable. Enter the next myth: that half of recyclable materials are thrown away by the companies.

“There is always going to be a part of recycling that is contaminated or unusable, but that’s just trash,” Killian explained. “There are always going to be those rumors out there that recycling is just thrown away. There are always people calling and saying things like, ‘I saw the recycling people throw my desk’ or ‘they threw my recycling away’ and we are always combating that.”

The University does all they can to keep our recycling in capable hands. “We know our markets, we have a good relationship with them, they are reputable businesses,” Killian said. “We aren’t going to send our materials to a place where we aren’t sure what they are doing with it.”

So now, since according to theory only extremist liberals should still be reading — it is time to attack that myth of political partisan.

Dr. Graham sees this myth as developing over time due to a tradition of republican and democratic voting records, and the creation of the extreme left “Green Party.” Republicans normally vote against pro-environmental bills, favoring a smaller government using less tax dollars. Democrats vote usually for pro-environmental bills, favoring a more involved government. And the Green Party’s main concern involves the environment. But as Dr. Graham stated, “that is an over-simplification.”

“Some of our best conservationists were conservatives,” Dr. Graham explains further. “Teddy Roosevelt was a republican and Richard Nixon began the Environmental Protection Agency during his administration — he doesn’t get much credit for it, but it’s true.”

Dr. Graham does lend some hope for the future of our world that cuts through party lines.

“There is a comfort zone across the political spectrum, and whether somebody considers themselves conservative, moderate, or liberal, we all have an interest in a sustainable ecosystem.” Dr. Graham said. “We all need clean water and we all need clean air and we all need energy.”