Recycling has become extremely important for our world’s well-being. There are countless Web sites and articles listing the numerous environmental and economic benefits of reducing our trash. Even Jack Johnson has claimed we’ve “got to learn how to reduce, reuse, recycle” while strumming along to his guitar.

In college, students are all very environmentally aware. Not only do they recycle newspapers, bottles and clothes, but they also recycle their fellow students. This fad has taken our age group by storm. One could even go so far as saying it’s “cool,” referencing Lexie Grey’s confession that she recycled Alex Karev on last week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

Georgetown University students are no strangers to such a system. In recent years, GU administrators have been pushing toward becoming a more green university. Just as they continue to increase the availability of recycling options on campus, students also increase their extracurricular reusing techniques. Every single one of my friends has recycled at least once during his or her college career and they have all woken up wondering the same exact thing: Why did I just do that?

Human recycling is rather different from rocking your older sibling’s hand-me-downs. It typically involves alcohol, bad judgment and a late-night phone call. However, it happens on college campuses — all the time. So, is there some sort of benefit to this practice, or should an old hook-up be thrown in the trash, never to be touched again?

The pool of dateable suitors on Georgetown’s campus is limited. With about 6,000 undergrad students, a third of whom spend the majority of their nights in Lau, it’s exceedingly difficult to find that special someone. Many students give up on their search for a serious something and opt to live in the now. They end up having a one-night fling with their bio lab partner or that boy in their IR discussion section. Promising it will never occur again because the morning after was just “so awkward!” they go about life as if nothing ever happened.

Then, a month later, said student dances in the living room of a too-crowded Henle and feels a hand on their waist. Oh no, it’s that embarrassing hook-up from a few weeks ago. But, with the assistance of jungle juice, they begin to recycle. Feelings are not involved, just hormones. And, once again, they wake up with a knot in their stomach, queasy due to the previous night’s events.

Certainly, casual hook-ups occur all the time in college. However, recycling is tricky; its participators often end up in murky waters. Deciphering when you are simply being reused or if you are now participating in a “thing” is extremely difficult. From my personal observations, if you recycle or get recycled more than once or twice, it will probably never be anything more. Certainly there’s no mathematical formula to figure this all out and there are always exceptions, but in college such exceptions are extremely rare.

The unpredictability and randomness of recycling can be exhilarating, and always provides for a funny story the next morning. But, just like an old sweatshirt eventually needs to head to the landfill, so do some old hook-ups. Unfortunately, your recyclee will not begin to physically unravel, smell or get moth holes, so it’s up to you to decide when it’s time to throw your baby out.

Next time you see your random hook-up out, think about the repercussions of what you’re about to do. Although you’re not helping the environment, you could have a bit of fun. Weigh the pros and cons of your situation; if it seems worth it, then feel free to recycle one more time. But do remember, you could wake up the next morning feeling like a piece of trash yourself.

Colleen Leahey is a junior in the College. She can be reached atleahey@thehoya.com Rounding The Bases appears every other Friday in The Guide.