Barry Wilkins hopes to reduce the amount of trash generated on campus, ensuring that the trash compactor to the right will be emptied every 30 days instead of every 22 days. (Jared Angle/The Washtenaw Voice)
WCC recycling manager talks garbage—and how to reduce it
Managing Editor
For Recycling Operations Manager Barry Wilkins, “trash talk” isn’t part of his vocabulary.
“The word waste is a dirty word around here for us,” Wilkins said.
And as Washtenaw Community College’s lead recycler, Wilkins is putting an emphasis on striking that phrase from the college’s collective lexicon. Since trading his former position of Director of Building Services for his current one, Wilkins has been making it his personal and professional mission to reduce the college’s waste stream. He reaches out to students, faculty and staff by engaging in various recycling drives throughout the year.
While he is still relatively new in his position, which was awarded to him during the Fall, 2011 semester, Wilkins has noticed for years that the awareness of recycling has been weak on campus.
“It never sat well with me that the emphasis wasn’t there,” he said. “We have custodians and other staff who have taken the time to place containers in class rooms and around campus not to be used. I would walk around the college and see materials that aren’t in the right place.”
That’s not to say that Wilkins thinks students and staff at the college don’t care about reducing the waste stream.
“What we’re trying to do is change the behaviors of the college,” Wilkins said. “It has gotten better, but there is always room for improvement. I see it all the time when I walk around campus. It’s important that we let students know that the materials have to be put in the right place.”
Wilkins began his employment with the college as a custodian in 1982, after serving six years in the U.S. Armed services. First in the Air Force National Guard and then later in the Army, Wilkins slowly climbed up the department’s chain of command. He worked as a supervisor of custodial services before managing the heating and cooling department, before “bailing out” the building services department, according to Damon Flowers, associate vice president of development and operations.
“We had been going through some changes in building services, and I knew that (Wilkins) had the knowledge to do it and had a good management style,” Flowers said. “We had some cleaning up to do and I knew that he would be able to do it.”
Flowers said that while it wasn’t in his main job description, Wilkins had shown a natural passion for recycling. He said it was only fitting when recycling operations for the school needed another reboot; Wilkins was the right man for the job.
“We wanted to drastically increase the visibility of the program,” Flowers said. Aside from repositioning Wilkins, the college has also begun collecting, compacting and bailing the college’s waste. This was done as a cost-cutting measure. With a steady and flourishing recycling program, Flowers said that the college could begin saving an average of nearly $30,000 from recycling alone.
That’s why recycling drives and awareness is so important, Wilkins said.
“Aside from cutting items to the waste stream and getting it out of the landfills, there is an opportunity there to generate revenue,” he added.
Among the different drives and promotions, Wilkins is working with Laura Crawford and other members of the WCC Environmental Committee to help reinvigorate the annual Recyclemania drive, which helps rank various colleges, organizations and other schools to give recognition to their individual efforts. Working closely with members of custodial services, who Wilkins said are the foundation and real success of his operation, helps the recycling czar keep a close eye on what is going where.
“He has been really helpful, in things like Recyclemania and even helping to organize the Earth Day,” said Crawford, senior managing editor for Washtenaw’s public relations department and a member of the Environmental Committee. “He has always been passionate about it and has a strong affinity for recycling.”
That interest is more than just professional, it’s personal.
“I have seen the college grow with new additions since I have been here, and this is a legacy that I want to leave behind,” Wilkins said. “We all know that we aren’t going to be here on this planet forever, and when I leave this world, I don’t want my children or my grandchildren to have a landfill in their backyards.”
And with a little bit of elbow grease and some creative thinking, maybe he can discontinue a few foul words in the process.
Recyclemania will kick off Feb 5 and will continue until March 31. Students looking to participate can place recyclable items in the designated hubs around campus. For more information, please contact Laura Crawford at (734) 677-5498, or by email at llcrawford@wccnet.edu
Materials that WCC recycles:
Cardboard, Paper, Metals, Plastics
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