Students are taking environmental-sustainability messages to the streets - literally.
Through this week, leaders of the Penn Environmental Group distributed nearly 1,000 recycling bins to residences between 38th and 42nd streets between Sansom Street and Baltimore Avenue.
As they continue their efforts through Sunday, they hope to motivate Penn students living off campus and nearby West Philadelphia neighbors to be more environmentally conscious.
The program was conceived a month ago by four students frustrated at the lack of recycling opportunities off campus.
Despite popular support for recycling and measures by RecycleNOW Philadelphia, an active support group for recycling, they felt Philadelphia lagged well behind the Penn campus.
As such, the group worked with the city to get more than 800 bins delivered to campus, a difficult task exacerbated by a city-wide shortage.
Engineering and Wharton senior Kimberly Gallant, who rents an apartment on 41st Street, said before the bin distributions began, she had difficulty procuring one from the city when she went to Philadelphia's Sanitation Yard: West.
These days, Gallant said she is pleased to have an easy means of recycling.
"When I saw them out there on Locust Walk, I was really excited," she said. Through the Penn students, she was able to get two bins for her apartment, both of which she said are already full.
The group has made the Rotunda near 40th and Chestnut streets its distribution headquarters and will give bins to anyone living off campus.
College senior Charlie Weinberg, who also lives on 41st Street, did not actively seek out a bin but received one from the group last weekend.
He said "recycling hasn't been a priority at college," but that now that he has a bin, he will "absolutely" use it.
College junior Noah Aptekar, one of the leaders of the bin program, said one of its major goals is targeting fraternities and sororities.
"The response has definitely been positive" from the neighbors, added Ashley Templeton, associate director of Off-Campus Initiatives for the Penn Environmental Group .
She said one of the biggest problems was that previously, few people living off campus knew how to recycle because bins are sparse and recycling pick-up occurs once every two weeks.
As a result, group members are raising awareness about recycling by going door-to-door to explain details about the initiative.
And they're receiving some help from peer groups, too.
Undergraduate Assembly chairman and College senior Jason Karsh said the UA will help "spread the word" about the program.
"We've been pushing the administration on recycling for years, so the Penn Environmental Group really deserves a hand," Karsh said.
"Unfortunately recycling is not convenient," Gallant added. "But it easily could be."
