Students can expect a “greener” campus early this December — thanks to a new recycling program.

N.C. Central University has been working with Orange Recycling Services to provide the bins across the campus.

Walter Lennon, project manager of NCCU’s Design and Construction Services, was charged with getting the recycling program started.

“We all know that we need to recycle, and the new administration wants to try and preserve the planet and take this school in a new direction,” said Lennon.

Hervey Graham, a NCCU purchasing agent who worked with Lennon on the recycling project, said education will be crucial to the success of the recycling program.

“The key to its success is going to be educating the community and getting students involved,” he said.

According to Graham, students, faculty, and staff will need to realize that everyone must develop the recycling habit and sort recyclables correctly.

The program provides different bins for different types of paper, bottles and cans.

Ninety percent of all garbage can be recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Recycling saves energy, land, space and money.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, recycling one aluminum can save enough energy to run a television for three hours — or the equivalent of a half gallon of gasoline.

Recycling can reduce air pollution by 73 percent and water pollution by 35 percent.

It can also preserve habitats for wildlife and is an easy and less expensive alternative to clearing more land for new landfills that produce dangerous gases.

Currently, NCCU only recycles cardboard because heavy fines are imposed if the landfill finds cardboard in waste material.

NCCU pays $39.50 per ton to dispose of its solid waste.

“I am happy that NCCU is finally doing something about the recycling program here,” said psychology sophomore Janine Hammon.

“It is a shame that it has taken this long to do something about it, especially since other colleges and universities in the area have been doing it for years,” said Hammon.

NCCU has struggled for years to get a recycling program in place.

In an Oct. 4, 2004 issue of the Campus Echo, Marcus Roundtree, an environmental science alumni, was interviewed about his concern over NCCU’s failure to recycle.

At that time, a representative of NCCU’s physical plant told Roundtree that it was too underfunded and understaffed to implement a recycling program.

In an April 18, 2007 issue, the Campus Echo reported that NCCU’s web page said that a recycling program would be started in spring 2007.

According to Lennon, NCCU’s recycling program still faces an uphill battle.

Recent budget cuts will prevent the initiation of a extensive recycling program with its own dedicated department like the one at UNC-Chapel Hill and other large universities.

“NCCU will eventually get there,” said Lennon.

A 1997 Durham city ordinance requires that institutions recycle cardboard, newspaper, glass and aluminum.

Orange Recycling operates a fleet of about 80 trucks and trailers from several sites just east of downtown Durham. The fleet operates entirely on biodiesel.