It goes without saying that some recycling measures, including setting up of recycling bins, have been done by the school to promote recycling of plastic in the campus, but we believe that the duty of recycling cannot count on the school solely on account of the limited school resources. In view of this, we suggest that the school can ask for partnership with some of the plastic recycling companies in Shantou City.

The partnership will be a mutually-beneficial one that the school can recycle more plastic materials while the companies can secure their supply of plastic waste. The school can choose an environmental-friendly local company specializing in plastic recycling to be the partner. While it is the responsibility of the partner to promote recycling on campus together with setting up more plastic recycling facilities, the school should grant the exclusive right to this particular company for using the plastic recycled in the University. We believe that the offer will be attractive to these companies as it can ensure their supply of used plastic which is the major direct materials to them.

Some people may concern that the partner chosen will only focus on maximizing profit but ignore their role of promoting recycling on campus, but we believe that this is not a concern as they can get more supply if they succeed in raising the environmental awareness of the students. The reason is that the higher the environmental awareness the students have the more plastic materials they will put into the recycling bins and in the end, the greater profit the comapny will generate.

Support provided by the partnering frim can include 2 dimensions — facilities and promotion. As we found on our survey that many students do not recycle the plastic items by virtue of the lack of recycling bins on campus. The partner can thus set up more recycling bins which are near to students, including hostels, teaching buildings and canteens. On the other hand, promotion materials, like banners, posters and social network promotion can be made to make the students understand the importance of recycling to the environment and our eco-system, and the possible ways of plastic recycling.

There is also a positive side effect to society for having such a partner. As the assessment criteria of choosing this partner includes environmental-friendliness of firms, these competing firms will try their best to cause less pollution to the environment during the production process in an attempt to win the contract. In the end of the day, this can even help to raise the industry’s awareness of environmental protection due to the economic incentive.