On Friday, students kicked off America Recycles Day sponsored by SMU’s Environmental Society. West Bridge was the site for recycling education as students received prizes and helpful tips on sustainability and green living.
Founded in 1997, America Recycles Day is a nationally celebrated event organized by the non-profit Keep America Beautiful. The non-profit helps various local groups host events in their communities. The goal is simple, encourage people to recycle and make it a mission to recycle 365 days a year. Given that the United States is a leader in the amount of trash it produces every year. Making the concept of reduce, reuse, and recycle something taken very seriously by some students.
“Having an America Recycles Day event helps SMU become recognized as part of a national community that cares about sustainability. More importantly, the event was a great opportunity to make recycling a local everyday issue,” said Jewel Lipps, Environmental Society’s president. “I was looking to make SMU students aware that recycling is a very cool, easy, and a caring thing we can do every day.”
SMU’s Environmental Society has been cleaning up the way students think about recycling for almost five years with events such as this. In previous years, the organization has held trash collecting events and hosted Barefoot on the Boulevard. The Environmental Society promotes educating students about recycling while making the campus more environmentally friendly.
Sophomore Wendy Alyea sat at the West Bridge table answering questions and explaining to students how to become more environmentally proactive on campus.
“It would be great to get more people involved in volunteer efforts to help the environment,” Alyea said. “Just by knowing that you can put an empty water bottle in the recycling bin instead of the trash makes a big difference.”
Over 100 students stopped by the table and roughly 70 people pledging to learn, act, and share about recycling. Educational recycling games at the event taught students about what SMU could and could not recycle.
Some students, like senior Jaywin Malhi, were surprised to find out the initiatives SMU was taking to make the campus a more environmentally greener place.
“It was a really eye opening experience to realize the breadth of materials recycled by this university. I think it’s a testament to SMU’s commitment to be at the vanguard of social responsibility in this day and age,” Malhi said.
Pro-environmental action and recycling does not end here for the Environmental Society. The organization’s next volunteering event will be during the JFK memorial to pick you trash around White Rock Lake or the Trinity River.
“I love that it feels like a group of friends with a common purpose of saving the environment. Whatever we do whether it’s picking up trash at a muddy riverbank or organizing a huge event it doesn’t feel like a chore,” Alyea said. “We have fun and still help the environment.”
