Not even the cold Wisconsin weather could keep the Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group, aided by REthink Wisconsin, from holding its trash sort event on Library Mall Friday afternoon.
Members collected bags of trash from University of Wisconsin buildings and sorted through them beneath a tent, separating recyclable items from garbage.
The garbage bags were put onto tarps, so as not to litter Library Mall. Recycling items were taken out of the trash bags by gloved volunteers and put directly into new bags depending on what type of item they were.
Devin Trezise, co-coordinator of WISPIRG’s Conservation and Recycling Efforts division, said he was hopeful the event would make an impression on volunteers as well as passers-by.
“This is a good way to get WISPIRG CARE interns and volunteers involved in actually sorting through trash in order to give them some hands-on education about recycling,” Trezise said. “It’s also a great visual for students on Library Mall to see how much trash actually can be recycled or composted.”
By the end of the afternoon, volunteers had collected about 72.5 pounds of garbage, Styrofoam and coffee cups, as well as 97 pounds of recyclable materials.
This translates into about 58 percent of recyclable items retrieved from the trash. While this percentage may seem high, it came as no surprise to CARE Coordinator Melissa Flores.
“This has approximately been the outcome of our previous trash sorts … so it’s not surprising to me that this happened again. I’m always hopeful that the percentage of recyclables will be lower, but it has not decreased yet,” Flores said.
Flores added that although the university recently adopted a new contract for recycling, which she sees as positive, it has not been publicized enough to make the desired impact.
“Most of the public is totally misinformed as to what exactly is recycled on campus, and it’s not their fault,” she said.
Flores cited the posters listing recyclable items in dormitories as an example, since they are “outdated.”
Friday’s event was originally planned for Oct. 24, but had to be canceled because of the weather. Although not ideal, Trezise said that the delay benefited the event in some ways.
“I think it actually improved it a little bit. …We had a lot of time to sort out any issues that the Union had with the event and any problems that the dorms had with collecting trash, like confidentiality issues,” Trezise said.
Trezise said that this event has been one of the group’s favorites in the past, which definitely showed on Friday. Although it snowed, rained and sleeted periodically throughout the afternoon, workers were not discouraged.
“The weather is kind of terrible, it’s very terrible, but I’m glad I can contribute to … make this campus greener,” said UW freshman Hanning Bi.
UW senior Steven Pupp agreed that the event was worth bearing the cold.
“It’s cold, but it hasn’t diminished our spirits,” he said.
