Enviro Merrill

Meeting Schedule

Wednesdays [1st and 3rd], 7pm, Merrill Ping-pong Room

Introduction

First of all, I'll start with a quick history of EnviroMerrill. Silas, my boss, got a waste reduction program started at college eight, where he use to work. Well, Silas was moved from college eight to Merrill last year. Last year, Silas hired Evelyn to get a waste reduction program at Merrill started. Evelyn did an excellent job of getting a group of volunteer students together to form EnviroMerrill. While Evelyn did a lot of the dirty work during her paid time during the week (sorting, picking up cardboard, and cleaning up after the nasty nasty people at Merrill), the group helped with outreach, education, and some other small tasks to keep recycling going.

Evelyn is on her field study this year and I was hired to replace her this year. Third quarter last year, I worked in waste reduction at college eight. Their program there is very very advanced. Theirs is much better than ours for a number of reasons: they have more money in their budget set aside for waste reduction expenses (meaning, that they can hired more paid employees than merrill), and they are the "environmental college." Having worked at college eight for a quarter, and volunteering with EnviroMerrill since it started in winter quarter last year, I am very excited to be heading up EnviroMerrill this year, and I'm very very very excited to think about the millions of things we can accomplish this year.

here are a couple of things on my list for this quarter:

make a trip to the Museum of Art&History (they are having an exhibit of art made from recycled materials)
get a cardboard recycling bin for C&D dorm
get plastic bag recyling bins (plastic bags CANNOT go in with plastic bottles!) [STATUS -- Done]
find a way to measure the waste produced at merrill and set a goal in reduction. right now the trash truck comes three times a week, and the recycling truck only comes once a week. on one hand, we know that there are a LOT of materials in the trash can that are not being recycled. but on the other, we dont want the recycling truck to come three times a week! here, the issue becomes REDUCTION rather than simply recycling. the recycling bins are full of plastic individual serving water bottles (i have nightmares about these--they are my worst enemy), and cans, etc...all things that people could be buying in bulk. one of our goals is to work on education...encouraging people to buy a reusable water bottle like a nalgene and use a brita...things like that. we've already figured out that we can tape a yard stick in the dumpsters to measure the amount of trash we produce at merrill. since the trash truck comes monday, wednesday, and friday, i figure i can check on the level of trash sunday night, tuesday night, and thursday night. what we need to work on is setting a goal for the students, and figuring out a way to encourage them to reduce their waste.
make rewards for reycling...canvas bags (so people dont have to use plastic bags), nalgene bottles, etc.
core course presentations. we will be making a 15 minute presentation to each core section about waste reduction at merrill. we also plan to discuss environmental racism. what else would y'all like to be presented? [STATUS -- In the process of doing]

goals for the entire school year:

get an "Eco-Water Source." at college eight, they have a water machine. students bring their own containers and for a quarter can fill a gallon with clean, filtered water. Kids from college eight, porters, and oakes use the machine. It has been a big success over there, and we hope to get one up on the hill for crown and merrill students to use. perhaps this will encourage people to stop buying those damn natural geysers!!!!!!!!!
start composting! at college eight, we did door to door compost pick-up to the apartments. it's very labor intensive. we had to clean out each apartment's bucket, and turn the compost a couple of times a week. it's kind of a sensitive and long process. we had to add grass and newspaper and the perfect amount of food to ensure that we didn't get mold or rats. after a while the food scraps would turn into good dirt though, and the gardeners would use it. here at merrill, there are 12 kitchens, including the apartments in A and B dorm, a kitchen in B dorm, CRE apartments, and the faculty apartments. we are hoping to start composting this year. we can't do crown/merrill apartments, because they are under a different maitenence staff. Perhaps they will be encouraged to start one if ours is successful! [STATUS -- just started, and will get into more at next week's meeting]

things to think about/do in the meantime: please encourage your hallmates and friends to recycle--and do it correctly. if someone recycles incorretly, the entire bin of materials might have to be thrown away because of one contaminate. if you see someone throwing plastic bags in the plastic bin, tell them that's wrong. there are signs above all the recycling centers, but for some reason, people still dont understand. encourage people to break down their cardboard boxes and take them to the cardboard dumpster....our goal here is to lead by example! educate people on what is right!

so, remember the meetings are wednesdays at 7 in the ping pong room. Come with your ideas and your feedback on what we talked about at last weeks meeting. i'm excited to hear if y'all have any new ideas or goals to add to the list. thanks for your interest in EnviroMerrill!!!!!!!!!

REDUCE, REUSE, AND REFUSE........AND THEN RECYCLE :-)

liz