From Trash to Treasure: E-Proctor's Bold New Recycling Initiative
By Bryce Pratt ’27
Contributor

The Loomis Chaffee Environmental Proctors have been busy implementing a new recycling initiative on campus. The new initiative involves the use of red bins, in addition to blue bins, to increase recycling on the Island.
About four months ago, the E-Proctors decided they wanted to tackle the lack of proper recycling. However, back then, the head E-Proctors weren’t certain about what this initiative should be centered around, as encouraging better recycling habits on campus is a difficult task.
Head E-Proctor Grace Rodner ’25 mentioned how she and other e-proctors “didn’t really feel that just placing more bins out or making more recycling infographics to spread around the school would make the impactful difference that [they] aimed to achieve.” This brought the group back to the brainstorming stage, processing ideas to get this new recycling initiative up and running.
What motivated them was Connecticut’s bottle deposit, which increased from 5 to 10 cents in January of 2024. The E-Proctors believed that they could use this to their advantage, ultimately benefiting the community and our environment. This is where the red bins came into play. These bins are located around campus for students and faculty to dispose of their empty cans and bottles. They are then taken weekly by Grace and the other E-Proctors to be dispirited for $0.10 each.
Grace remarked that “given the number of drinks students here at Loomis go through, we hope that we may receive a substantial amount of money in return.” Alongside the proper disposal of these cans, the return money is projected to be highly profitable.
With these earnings, E-proctors will donate to local environmental organizations. However, this initiative is only possible if the Loomis community utilizes the red bins to their full extent. Instead of throwing bottles and cans away in the trash can, students and faculty on the Island have to be more cognizant about throwing recyclable material in red bins.
Despite all these efforts, Grace admits that the E-Proctors have been coming across some difficulties. When students throw their trash into these bins, they are unable to proceed with the deposit of these materials, which therefore reduces the recycled material and the proceeds that come with it. Grace’s final remark to students and staff on the Island is that she asks everyone “to please only put your empty bottles and cans in these red bins.” She also noted that these red bins can be found clearly marked next to the trash bins, “which you can put your trash in [instead of recyclable material].”
To help our Loomis Community and the greater environment, the E-Proctor program encourages all students to be active members of their new recycling initiative by taking advantage of the red bins around campus.