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Contrary to the Paul Williams song (and with apologies to Kermit the Frog), it might not be easy being green, but for Samantha Biszantz, it can be profitable. The senior, through her recycling efforts, has declared a one-woman war on wastefulness with charity the ultimate beneficiary.
At the end of the year, Biszantz will donate money earned through recycling to a particular cause, preferably one that is environment oriented—perhaps a water well project in a developing country, she says.
Hauling glass and plastic bottles and aluminum cans weekly, Biszantz gets about per visit to the recycling center, so far raising about 0. "It may not sound like a lot," she says, "but thinking that 0 was raised in little over half a year, just moving cans out of the trash—is pretty convincing when you consider the benefits."
The collecting started earlier this year after Biszantz bought four large recycling trash cans to post in corners of the senior apartments at CMC. After picking through the heaps of cans and bottles that accrue weekly, she delivers them to the drive-up recycling centers at Albertson's or Stater Bros.
"A friend of mine allows me to use his pickup truck whenever I ask," she says, smiling, "and he's never once complained about the stale beer smell that follows."
Environmentally conscious since high school, Biszantz says she really caught the recycling bug her sophomore year at CMC after big school parties. Then, the summer before her senior year, she decided to intern for an environmental organization and chose the Surfrider Foundation.
"It's a national organization dedicated to keeping the oceans and beaches clean," she says. "My job was to visit elementary schools and day camps and present their 'Kids for Clean Water' campaign. Being there I learned so much about how to better the state of our environment, and the most important thing I took away from it was that 'plastics are forever.'"
According to Biszantz, the green movement is great, but she's wary that it might be trendy and one day fade in popularity as people search out the "next big thing.
"It's wonderful that people are conserving and recycling," she explains, "but I think politics—both domestic and international—are too involved for anything major to happen as a result of someone like me bringing cans and bottles to a recycling center," she says. "The point of the movement is the hope that the environment can last in its beautiful state for as long as possible, And that hope is what keeps crazy people like me digging through trash cans!"
But the thought that her cans and bottles could be in our landfills forever spurs Biszantz on.
"Something as easy as separating trash can save the environment," she adds, "but it's disappointing that people don't think the time recycling is well-spent. I'm not only creating less waste—less of a 'footprint' on the earth—but using an opportunity to push the environmental movement farther along.
"I never really want to stick my hand into a bin of dirty cans," Biszantz says, "but there is a satisfaction when I'm done that is pretty hard to duplicate."
An example of the environmental motto, Think globally, act locally, she leaves a shred of advice for budding recyclers: "Remember to wear rubber gloves!"
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