by Amy McLeod
As Earth Day approaches, Elon students gear up in an effort to conserve energy, recycle more and educate about environmental issues during the campus’s “Earth Week.”
The Green Team and the Sierra Club chapters at Elon University have joined forces to create a week’s worth of events and presentations centering around Earth Day, which occurs on Wednesday, April 22.
For a full list of “Earth Week” events, click here.
In an informal survey of 141 Elon students, 88.7 percent said that they would consider themselves to be environmentally aware and nearly 64 percent said that their Elon education has made a difference in their awareness.
“Coming into Elon I wasn’t very aware,” said sophomore Tamara Burnett, “but for our Global Studies class we were all required to read An Inconvenient Truth. That book really opened my eyes to a lot of the problems plaguing our environment and the severity of them.”
There are many different ways to be environmentally conscious. The majority of students polled, 61 percent, try to follow the three step process: reduce, reuse, recycle.
Not all students are so willing to make the effort. Sixteen percent of students surveyed said that they have taken no action to preserve the environment.
“To be honest,” said sophomore Chris Myers, “I know it’s a problem but I don’t really have the time or the energy to care or to change my lifestyle to make a difference.”
As some students have realized, it does not necessarily take a huge effort to make a real difference.
“I try to remember to do the little things,” said Jenn McHugh. “I try to turn off the lights and water when I’m not using them. It’s a work in progress but I think I’m getting better about it and every little bit helps. This is the only planet we have and if I can make a difference for my kids and my grandchildren, I’ll do what I can.”
“Landfill on the Lawn” demonstrates students wasteful behavior
The Earth Week activity planned for today is Landfill on the Lawn. Physical Plant brought trash from dormitories and academic buildings to the Moseley lawn.
Earth Week's Landfill on the Lawn at Elon University
Student volunteers and members of the Sierra Club and the Green Team then dug through the trash, sorting out recyclables such as newpapers and water bottles.
“There’s always a lot of water bottles,” said Elon junior Kim Krumm, “because people will buy water bottles, drink them and throw them out and that’s not very sustainable. Elon did give out new water bottles and that’s great. In fact, we did find a couple of them in the trash.”
From water bottles to jeans and textbooks, the piles of trash at Landfill on the Lawn were full of students garbage, much of which could be recycled.
Listen as Kim Krumm discusses Landfill on the Lawn and the importance of recycling and sustainability.
Good add-on of information and images from the landfill on the lawn!