 Media Credit: Jessica Locke Elise LaDouceur and other organizers turned the Dustbowl into a recycling center Friday.
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St. Patrick's Day is no longer the only holiday that has Boston College students seeing green. Friday, BC celebrated Earth Day in the Dustbowl. The focus of the event was clear to all who passed by between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Event organizers sported bright green T-shirts that read "Kiss me … I recycle."
The goal of the event was to reach out to students passing through and help them learn about ways to recycle. "Our goal was to promote environmental awareness and to bring recycling and energy conservation changes on campus," said Phil Pietrangelo, a member of Ecopledge and A&S '09. Event organizers, Ecopledge, and the Environmental Action Coalition joined forces with BC Facilities to set up the most impressive display at the event, "Mount Trashmore," a 1,200-pound pile of all the trash from Upper Campus the previous night.
Throughout the day, volunteers sorted through the trash to find all the recyclables. At the end of the day, over 35 percent of the trash was recycled. The amount of trash and recyclables made quite an impact on Anne Perreault, CSON '06. "Everybody should have to look at it," she said.
Dick Range, manager of the utilities functions of BC Facilities, expressed his commitment to bring about greater recycling awareness. "We will keep [Mount Trashmore] going as an Earth Day activity until the point where there are no recyclables in the trash."
He said his goal was "to show students they are throwing away recycling opportunities."
The Earth Day celebration is Ecopledge's biggest event of the year and they hope that with attention-grabbing displays, they will encourage more members of the BC community to collaborate with recycling and conservation initiatives.
"That's why we do Mount Trashmore. We hope people will come and get involved as they walk by," said Katherine Walsh, event co-organizer and A&S '08. Not to be disappointed, several people walking by after their classes did grab a pair of gloves and jump in to sort through the trash.
There were also several tables set up with posters and information on nature and recycling. Students passing through the Dustbowl were offered suggestions to modify their behavior on campus, with suggestions to reuse water bottles and eat on plates instead of plastic containers.
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