If you were on the river campus during move in you may have noticed that giant green bins, like the one shown here, were placed all over the residential areas to help encourage students to recycle rather than trash the cardboard they may have used for packing.
But while students were unpacking in their rooms, there was something else that was there to help them recycle – other students! The EcoReps Program, designed to train incoming freshmen to be leaders in sustainability on their halls, got off to an amazing start this year by working non-stop in their dorms to break down cardboard boxes from their hall-mates and transport them over to bins like this so their peers wouldn’t have to. With the help of the EcoReps, we filled this container by Susan B Anthony and several others like it, collecting a grand total of 2.36 tons of cardboard from the freshmen areas alone! That’s more than the weight of two Honda Civics – in cardboard!
But wait, there’s more! These handy freshmen helpers were not only diligently separating and recycling cardboard, but Styrofoam, too! Every piece of Styrofoam they found in their cardboard boxes was lovingly cleaned and bagged so that it could be taken to Thermal Foams, a buffalo based Styrofoam manufacturing plant that melts down the old Styrofoam and uses it to make new pieces. Not only does this prevent the company from needing to produce brand new Styrofoam products, but it also diverts all of that Styrofoam from landfills, providing the best possible disposal method and preventing the buildup of materials that don’t decompose over time. All told, the EcoReps collected over 264 cubic feet of Styrofoam – enough to fill a 16×16 foot room to the ceiling! To all you freshmen out there, next time you look at that newly unpacked TV or computer remember that all that packaging has gone to a good place, all thanks to your friendly neighborhood EcoRep.
Despite their brilliant efforts, the Ecoreps weren’t the only green students come move in day. With collection points throughout campus, the upperclassmen also had the opportunity to recycle their cardboard waste. With the upperclassmen body we received an additional half ton of cardboard, bringing our total to almost 3.2 tons collected in one week! When you think about how much room that would take up in a landfill, it makes you realize how much of an impact our students made just by putting their waste in the right place. Thanks to every student that helped out, and a special thanks to the EcoReps for making the entire program worth doing. Keep up the good work!