Through the end of finals week, Campus Recycling will harness a passion for sustainability to give back to the community. Collection bins for the organization’s biannual Food and Clothing Drive will be stationed in approximately 40 dorm lobbies across campus from Dec. 3 to Dec. 13.
“Every person who lives in a dorm room, and if you don’t you can come in and just drop them off in the area,” Dalton Niese, the zero waste and recycling coordinator, said. “Most of the RAs will know where the bins are so if you can’t find the bin you can ask an RA, but they’re usually just set up in the lobbies.”
All food donations will be sent to Cats' Cupboard, a food pantry located in Baker University Center. All clothing donations will be stored until Earth Day when Campus Recycling will put them to use.
“For Earth Day, in collaboration with the Office of Sustainability at Walter International, we have a free clothing area where you can come in and look through all the clothing we have,” Niese said.
Campus Recycling is hosting the drive in early December for two reasons, the first being the generous spirit that circulates during this time of year.
“It’s the holidays and people may need food … if Cats’ Cupboard gets too much, I think they just partner with local entities like UCM and stuff like that to get people fed,” Niese said.
The second reason is due to the upcoming break in the school year; the drive offers an alternative for students planning to send their remaining food and unwanted clothes to the dumpster.
“We’re just trying to divert as much stuff from the landfill as possible,” Niese said. “We handle move-out and this is kind of similar, a bunch of students that are going to be gone for a month that have a bunch of food they don’t know what to do with.”
Mark Call, manager of Campus Recycling, has witnessed this excess wastefulness firsthand.
“I’ve worked on the other side of it in the past emptying the dumpsters, and at this time of year when they (OU students) have left for their break, the dumpsters are just full of food,” he said.
According to Niese, Campus Recycling is not only a good fit to run the drive because of its sustainable mission, but also because it employs approximately 20 student workers who help the event run smoothly. One of these workers is Maria Zuk, a junior studying environmental science and sustainability.
“I became a student worker because I wanted to get more involved in my major, and I genuinely love this place,” she said. “I’ve heard all good reviews from everyone who works here and I love making a difference, and I can see the difference.”
The student workers are responsible for collecting donations throughout the week, providing them with a visual account of how impactful their work is.
“It offsets so much waste … knowing that goes to someplace instead of just the trash and the landfills makes me happy,” Zuk said.
Niese has also been able to quantify the impact of the drive, both in the communities being served and in data from past years that report the donation amounts.
“There’s no shortage of people that need food in this area, so (we have) an ability to get a lot … around 1,000 pounds of clothes and over 1,000 pounds of food,” he said.
Finn Lennerth, a junior studying cellular and molecular biology and another of the organization's student workers, believes the drive has an impact on the donors as well as the recipients.
“I think it makes recycling a lot more accessible for students who can’t drive, it’s way easier for them to donate stuff,” he said.
Lennerth appreciates the opportunity to give back to the local community, and Zuk has already noticed community-building elements in the drive's early days.
“Some people don’t do it unless another person is, so when everyone gets together and does it, that is when we make the change,” she said.
Campus Recycling will organize another drive at the end of the spring semester, furthering the group's commitment to sustainability and resourcefulness during times of relocation for students.
