Recycling isn't always high on people's list of priorities. In an effort to change people's attitudes and actions, a group of students will host Recycle Mania on Earth Day tomorrow outside the Tiger Den from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"Down South, we're not big on recycling," said arts and liberal studies graduate student Amanda Williams. "There needs to be a huge change on campus."
To bring awareness to environmental issues, professor Barbara Mullins Nelson divided her education and community class into two groups and gave them projects for the semester.
Nelson gave Williams, Tia Schlagel, leadership and policy studies graduate student, and recruitment representative of The U of M Betsy Loe an assignment to promote recycling. Schlagel said the group decided to host Recycle Mania on Earth Day to fill a void in local activity.
"It just made sense to do it on Earth Day," said Schlagel, "It didn't seem like there was a lot going on for Earth Day here."
Earth Day originated on April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans gathered in streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy sustainable environment, according to the Earth Day Network Web site, earthday.net.
The semester goal of Nelson's class was to increase about knowledge on the subject of sustainability. In addition to the two groups, there were four projects by individuals.
"The idea was that the students in this class would make a contribution to one of The University's main goals, which is to become a sustainable university, and this class was the perfect place to do this," Nelson said. "They're so creative."
Her class objective is to have students find ways to learn in the community, she said. Nelson said she likes to use hot topics to achieve her class objectives, "so this topic of sustainability was a big one."
Because the project is entirely completed by the students, she wants to be one of the people in the community who learns, Nelson said. She said she has learned much this semester through her students and is ready to see the students' projects.
"I don't know a whole lot about (Recycle Mania) yet," she said. "I have it on my calendar."
Schlagel attended The University of Colorado where their Recycle Mania is a part of a yearlong national competition. She said she wanted to start to bring it to The U of M.
"This is sort of a trial run to see if people are interested," Schlagel said.
If students are interested, the group plans to provide feedback to The University and start a local chapter to compete in the national competition.
The national level of Recycle Mania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for recycling programs at colleges and universities to "promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities," according to the Recycle Mania Web site.
The national competition takes place over a 10-week period where schools report recycling and trash statistics which are ranked according to categories such as which college collects the largest amount of total recyclables or has the least amount of trash.
Schlagel said she thinks people will fill the five recycling bins provided by the Physical Plant for the class project.
Besides filling recycling bins, the group will have displays showing what exactly people put into the bins, such as a four-foot high stack of paper that represents how much paper can be made from a 40-foot tall Douglas fir tree.
"I feel like the purpose of what we're doing is raising the awareness of recycling so students are aware," Schlagel said.
Williams said she really wants people to come to Recycle Mania with their aluminum, paper and plastic products to donate because, as the group is taught in their class, "if everyone does their part, then they contribute to the bigger picture."
