On a drizzly Wednesday morning, Dale Ekart digs through trash. Dressed in patched jeans, a sweat shirt and gloves, Ekart and Bill Allerheinligen left their homes before dawn to investigate dumpsters at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. And Allerheinligen, a landscape services employee, has been picking up the university's trash for about 30 years. The two are trying to find out if the university is recycling what it should. If they find recyclables in the trash, it is not.
Independent agencies recycle aluminum cans on campus.
UNL has one of the 10 most efficient recycling programs in the country, Ekart said, and it is getting better. Ekart issued a report at last week's deans and directors meeting that showed the 1995-96 fiscal year would be the first year the recycling program would turn a profit. To do that, Ekart and Allerheinligen have to do the dirty work. Ekart and Allerheinligen circle campus in a noisy dump truck, stopping at every campus building from residence halls to Love Library. The dump truck hoists the dumpster in the air and with a clattering cacophony, drops it to the ground.