ARCATA -- Two weeks after cuts to Humboldt State University's Plant Operations department were announced, the future of the campus recycling program is still up in the air.

HSU officials announced on April 8 that the university would lay off 21 of the department's 92 employees because of state budget cuts.

"In effect, these cuts have eliminated everyone who is involved with recycling," said HSU Solid Waste Reduction Manager Alec Cooley.

Recycling staff collect between 250 and 300 tons each year of beverage containers, paper and cardboard as well as other materials like electronics, scrap wood, surplus property and old appliances.

"Recycling has for years had to prove itself as something other than just being an eco-friendly sustainable thing," Cooley said. "We've gotten to a point now where we have this program on campus that also pays for itself."

By bringing in revenue from selling recyclables and by saving garbage fees, the recycling program generates nearly enough money to pay for its staff, he said.

"We promote ourselves as a national leader of sustainability, but it's just an empty image if we can't even hold on to something basic like recycling," said Associated Students President Gretchen Kinney-Newsom in a written statement.

"Recycling is to Humboldt what football is to Alabama State. It's abhorrent to abandon our core values of sustainability and eliminate recycling," she continued.

Cooley and Director of Plant Operations Tim Moxon are working on options to retain recycling despite the cuts. Cooley said it may be easier to recycle some items than others, with office papers and beverage containers more tricky than cardboard.

A student-run group collected recycling from the 1980s till 2001, Cooley said. That group, run through the Associated Students, continues to collect food waste for composting and to educate the campus on related issues.

Cooley said that group has pledged $10,000 from its trust fund to help pay for the plant operations program.

He said he has contacted four other recycling agencies in the area and is waiting to hear their proposals and get a sense of the cost to the campus. Cooley said he's also looking at alternative sources of funding.