Students to audit trash for Earth Day

Publication Date

Union will observe Earth Day on Friday with a series of events this week being offered by U-Sustain, Ozone House, the Environmental Club and Octopus' Garden.

On Tuesday, students will perform a trash audit, collecting garbage from several residence halls and academic buildings. Wearing protective gear, students will sort through the trash in front of the Reamer Campus Center, picking out cardboard, paper, bottles and cans, plastics, compost and trash. Students then determine the percentage of recyclables that are thrown away.

Students will also be doing a clothing swap from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday in Reamer. Participants can bring old clothes they don’t want and swap them for used clothes.

On Friday, Ozone Cafe will offer a local, organic meal, and on Saturday, students will be planting crops at 10 a.m. in Union’s own Octopus’ Garden.

Last spring, Union was included among the country’s most environmentally responsible colleges, according to The Princeton Review’s first “Guide to Green Colleges.” The free guide, produced in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council, includes schools that have “demonstrated an above average commitment to sustainability in terms of campus infrastructure, activities and initiatives.”

All events are open to the campus community.