St. Joe's dumpster dives for Earth Week

Last week, G.R.E.E.N. C.O.W. and Sustainability Club held a series of events  extending Earth Day to an entire week.

Earth Week events included planting trees with Gompers students, hosting a presentation by West Philly High students who beat MIT students in a hybrid car building competition, tie-dying organic T-shirts with 1851 Records, and a screening of the documentary “Sustainability: A New Consumer Movement.”

“The main thing was to make people aware [of sustainability practices], to get a little insight, and have an example to show people,” said Zac Curtis, president of G.R.E.E.N. C.O.W.

Curtis considered the dumpster dive held on Thursday during free period the most successful even tof the week. Members of both clubs, along with Michael McCann, Ph.D., chair of the Sustainability Committee, went through 15 bags of campus trash and removed all recyclable materials. Eight bags of the trashed materials turned out to be recyclable and onlookers were asking questions about what items were and were not recyclable.

“It wasn’t just a number, it was physical. We could see how much was recyclable,” said Curtis. “I thought that was the best event, and I felt people learned a lot from that.”