Jae Eslinger believes in the power of one.

Now she’s trying to carry her beliefs over into a new organization that will stress environmental responsibility.

Eslinger, 20, an English major from Newport, has always cared about the state of the earth and reducing waste, but she says many UTM students don’t know or care about the university’s recycling programs.

“We need publicize the recycling program and get students more involved in it,” Eslinger says.

Now she hopes to form a student group to help students understand the importance of recycling and natural resource preservation.

She and a handful of students met last night to discuss ways to improve UTM’s recycling program and to spur other students to action. They decided to start an official group that would work closely with university officials to further their goals.

Eslinger says her interest in the environment persists from a childhood conversation with her father.

“My dad told me you have the power to change the world and to use it for good,” Eslinger says. Her father also told her that whatever a person does affects everything else.

Then she saw litter scattered around as she was walking to the library one day and thought pollution was a senseless abuse of the planet.

“We’re just destroying the planet,” Eslinger says. “I decided I can do something about it.”

Just tossing an old exam in a blue bin, however a small action in relation to the larger world, is still a noble act, she says.

“It’s a small step. But you do save trees, and then help prevent landslides, save landfill waste space and save some wildlife from giving up their habitat.”

Eslinger admits the group she hopes to establish will start off small, but she hopes it will grow as more people become aware of the problems associated with pollution.

While she cedes that improving recycling plans at the university is a small measure, she says that doing “small things” will help slow down global climate change.

“If campuses and cities across the nation would think about environmental issues and become more aware, they will realize that these things help,” she says.

Furthermore, Eslinger says the university could do more in the recycling effort. She wants to lobby to begin a program for recycling glass and plastic, which currently does not exist at UTM.

Last week, UTM announced plans to use soy biodiesel in a new on-campus power generating facility currently under construction. The university also says it recycles more than 100 tons of paper and cardboard annually.