ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½

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Plastic Problem

Trash litters a campus landmark in a statement for sustainability.

Summer 2015
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On April 8, approximately 150,000 discarded bottles were dumped into the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ Reflecting Pond to raise awareness about the consequences of plastic trash.

The collective effort of the Student Government Association, ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ Recycles and the student organization I.D.E.A.S. for ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ began at 4:30 a.m., and continued throughout the day, with 108 volunteers emptying bins of the recycled items into the normally off-limits campus landmark.

Students drawn to the disturbing sight were encouraged to sign a pledge to reduce their personal waste and energy consumption.

Those who signed the pledge received a T-shirt and a reusable water bottle to inspire them to change their single-use plastic water bottle habit.

β€œIt’s easy to disregard facts and figures about garbage, but it’s difficult to ignore thousands of bottles floating in front of you.” β€” Emily Dovydaitis, SGA health and sustainability coordinator

β€œNothing like this has been done on campus before and we hope its historic nature will be enough to get people to do something about protecting our environment.” β€” Emily Dovydaitis, SGA health and sustainability coordinator