SEA hoping MAINstage recycling push goes throughout CMU campus
The environmental push Campus Dining and the Student Environmental Alliance enforced Sunday at MAINstage will hopefully grow toward the rest of campus this year, SEA officials said.
Jocelyn Jarvis, Campus Dining assistant marketing manager, said SEA was recruited to help collect aluminum cans, water bottles and potato chip bags at the event Sunday.
“We were at MAINstage to help sort the recyclables from the trash. We helped it to go smoothly, but we didn’t plan anything for it,” said SEA National Council Member Sarah Lechota.
Campus dining and SEA collected food bags from Frito-Lay, Nabisco, Kashi, Clif Bar, Luna, and Bear Naked during MAINstage for a program called Terracycle, Jarvis said.
“The Terracycle program takes used wrappers to make reusable bags for money,” said SEA Council member and Clare senior Jenna Hatch.
Campus Dining and SEA incorporated as much local and Michigan-made food as possible into the menu, Jarvis said, a process they plan to transition this year into the dining halls.
“We’re trying to get community gardens going on campus this year, so the cafeterias can buy organically grown produce,” Lechota said. “In the cafeterias, it’s hard to feed all those people, but we want the food that they serve to be local.”
SEA was allowed to keep all of the refund from returning the aluminum cans they collected as a fundraiser, Jarvis said. The group made $275, Hatch said.
She said SEA will be working throughout the year to raise awareness of recycling.
“We do demonstrations in busy areas of campus by sorting out the recyclables from the trash cans,” she said. “We also work with recycling centers on campus and maintenance. Everyone is really cool and excited about recycling, which helps us out.”
A professional recycling contractor was brought to MAINstage with designated bins for cans, chip bags and water bottles, Lechota said.
During the school year, SEA encourages people to take their recyclables to blue bins around campus or the tanks behind the dining halls.
“For myself, I keep an upbeat attitude about recycling. I give people facts and figures while being nonchalant, instead of being the recycle police,” Hatch said. “We just give people an example to pick up their pop cans.”
