Go West, Go Green

The University of West Georgia is gearing up for a new recycling and sustainability initiative that is a part of the Go West, Go Green Campaign.

Recycle Mania, which is scheduled to kick off Feb. 2 through March 28, is a campus-wide initiative that encourages students, faculty and staff to recycle items such as water bottles, plastic cans and paper.

UWG is competing against other Georgia schools, such as Georgia Southern University, to be in the top-five amongst the recycling colleges.

“We’re aiming to be in the top five of the all the participating universities,” said Kasey Swafford, Housing and Sustainability Coordinator of Housing and Residence Life. “We hope to eventually earn more revenue and be featured in an upcoming magazine that is similar to the Princeton Review.”

This recycling initiative began last school year, when recycling bins were placed in the Oaks and Bowdon residence halls. Since students used the bins in great numbers, recycling bins were placed in all the residence halls at the beginning of this school year.

“We are using this initiative to cut costs in our residence halls,” she said. “We have two teams that come every day to pick up recycled materials.”

Sustainability measures, such as replacing the aerators on the water faucets in Arbor View Apartments, will decrease the amount of water and energy usage and reduce costs among the residence halls.

Housing and Residence Life is also partnering with UWG Risk Management to make the recycling initiative campus wide.

“We will be using many different efforts to get students to recycle and eventually earn revenue.”

Recycle Mania will be one of the first efforts campus-wide that will get students engaged and understand the importance of recycling.

There will be an event each week in February and March that will be geared towards recycling.

The first week in February will be pledge week where students are asked to pledge towards recycling. The second week will be Mug Shot week, in which representatives from Housing and Residence Life and Risk Management will pass out recyclable water bottles that will encourage students to reuse water bottles instead of disposing them.

Representatives will also be at the Wolves basketball game Feb. 12 to give out t-shirts and prizes. They will also collect recyclable materials from the students and fans during the halftime.

“I think through these events, students will get on board with recycling.”

Erin

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