Ohio University students, administrators, faculty and staff deserve a huge round of applause for another successful Athens Beautification Day! For the first time, ABD went “zero-waste,” which means efforts were made to reduce waste prior to the event and during. Student volunteers helped educate attendees on how to properly use the compost and recycling bins at Zero Waste stations set up around College Green. The efforts of volunteers, event organizers from Student Senate and over 1,200 attendees helped achieve a 94.7 percent diversion rate of waste generated at the event. Instead of sending waste to landfills, these materials will be repurposed at the Recycling Center and Compost Facility into usable items like mulch for campus gardens.
In fact, free T-shirts distributed at the event were made from recycled plastic bottles. Groups tasked with litter pickup collected cigarette butts separately from recycling and trash so the city can recycle them into new park benches. Vice President for Student Affairs Ryan Lombardi and Mayor Paul Wiehl showed their support for zero-waste efforts in their speeches during the event kick-off. A big thanks also goes out to the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, Campus Recycling, Kiser’s Barbeque and Goodfellas for helping make ABD the first officially zero-waste event on campus. This collaboration between campus and community truly shows the commitment of the city, faculty, staff and students to the Sustainability and Climate Action Plans.
Alex Slaymaker is a senior studying environmental planning and policy.
