Buildings and Grounds officials have demanded that the College's dining halls stop selling bottled Snapple beverages or help pay for the cost of recycling the glass.
Dartmouth Dining Services sells more than 15,000 Snapple bottles each month.
"My preference is that we drink out of aluminum cans," said William Hochstin, director of Dartmouth Recycles, the College's recycling program.
Aluminum is easier to recycle than glass, he said.
"There is a problem with Snapple bottles," Building and Grounds Director Dick Plummer said. Glass bottles, he said, are costly, difficult and dangerous to recycle. "It's a step backward in the whole recycling idea," Plummer said.
According to Pete Napolitano, the dining services director, Snapple is "the leading beverage on campus." In April alone, Dining Services sold 16,800 bottles of Snapple.
When Dining Services tried to introduce Snapple cans last term, students bought 15 bottles for every can. "We went out with a survey last term and the result was clear to us -- students want Snapple in bottles, not cans," Napolitano said.
"We disagree a little bit," Napolitano said of the recommendations made by Dartmouth Recycles. "I am in support of the Dartmouth Recycles program, but I will do what the students want me to do," he said.
More and more glass is being used on campus, while aluminum can use is declining.
The College recycled 964,800 cans last year, down from 1,108,800 the year before. Recycled glass is up from 30,800 to about 81,200 bottles.
The College sold $11,256 in crushed aluminum from cans last year, down from $16,170 the year before. The College makes $900 a ton for aluminum, but nothing for glass bottles.
This year the College will make even less on aluminum, Hochstin said.
Hochstin said the glass bottles break easily and can cause injuries. They are heavy, which means expensive transportation costs to Fairfield, Conn., the closest glass recycling plant. Dartmouth Recycles also needs more workers to help pick up the bottles.
Unlike the glass bottles, recycled aluminum cans can be remade into new cans in six weeks and do not need to be rinsed out before they are recycled.
Cans are collected around campus and compacted into blocks by a machine owned by the College. Any fluid left in the cans drains out when they are compressed. The blocks are sent to a plant in Springfield, Mass., where they are resmelted into cans. Hochstin said there is no danger in handling or from contamination.
Bottles need to be separated by color and completely washed before being crushed. If they are not thoroughly rinsed, the entire batch is contaminated and instead of being recycled the glass must be disposed of at a landfill at an additional cost to the College. Metal lids left on the bottles also contaminate the load.
"It only takes a couple of people to make the contamination," Hochstin said.
"We don't mind collecting glass in the dorms," Hochstin said. "We are not prepared to handle glass in every building on campus but we are finding students carrying Snapple into classes and administration buildings."
Plummer said College employees must spend time collecting bottles from across campus. "We find them all over campus laid down very carefully next to the can bins," he said.
Hochstin said students should put the bottles in dormitory basement recycling centers after washing them and removing their caps.
Hochstin said the hazards of moving glass around is the biggest problem.
"The worst part of glass is the danger. Workmen's compensation is a very expensive proposition," Hochstin said.