The tabling event was modeled after Get on Board Day and featured a variety of student groups and activities including Tide for Tusks and the Yellowhammer Festival. This was the first event of the weeklong program to help students become more environmentally friendly. RecycleBama, an SGA-led initiative, will be at the Homegrown Alabama Farmers’ Market on Thursday and students can participate in their scavenger hunt on Friday to win prizes.
“We have this fun quote on the back of our T-shirts, ‘The future will either be green or not at all,’” said Julie Buzzard, a member of RecycleBama and a sophomore majoring in nutrition and marketing. “There’s so much waste, especially cans everywhere. There’s recycle bins, but people just don’t use them. It’s more about awareness to get people to realize it’s super easy to put your can in a blue bin instead of a trash can.”
The group encourages students who live off campus to use the drive-through drop off at the Recycling Center on 14th Street, which is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon.
Tide for Tusks, a new student group, also participated in the tabling to raise awareness for the conservation of African elephants. As part of Green Week, they will host a fundraiser at the Bear Trap on Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. Students can purchase wristbands for $5, and the proceeds go to on-site African elephant conservation and research groups.
“It’s an important part of the natural world and it’s important to Alabama specifically because it’s our mascot,” said Matthew Barrett, a member of Tide for Tusks and a freshman majoring in history and international studies. “But at the rate poaching is continuing, there is a real possibility that elephants will be extinct within 10 years. So it’s kind of a dire problem that needs to be solved.”
Barrett said he saw this problem firsthand when he visited South Africa and Botswana last summer and he encourages students to also donate online to help save the elephants.
Green Week will culminate with the Yellowhammer Festival on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. at the UA Arboretum. Creative Campus sponsored the festival, which is an eco-friendly and dog-friendly concert, and it features performances from artists such as Lake Lyon and Actual People. Students can expect to find local vendors, food and giveaways.
“The idea is that there’s no music festival in Tuscaloosa, so we’re trying to start something and bring something to the community that isn’t there, but in a good way through sustainability,” said Dylan McCaghren, a senior majoring in marketing and Spanish and a Creative Campus intern.
The group has been collecting used K-cups and turning them into planters. After the festival, students can take home a planter with a seed of their choosing and watch it grow.
After Green Week ends, RecycleBama will continue to have monthly Instagram competitions where students take a picture doing something environmentally friendly for the chance to win prizes like gift cards, an ENO, and water bottles. For students interested in joining, applications and interviews will be held in the fall.
For more information, follow them on Twitter @RecycleBama and on Facebook at RecycleBama.
