Illinois Wesleyan’s efforts to promote the recycling of electronic waste — by hosting Mega Recycling events in cooperation with the Ecology Action Center — were cited in an Infographic accompanying an Allied Health World news article on e-hazards.
Courtesy of: Allied Health World
As students move out of the residence halls, their textiles and household items will be collected to benefit Home Sweet Home Ministries.
This program was initiated in spring 2012 by Leadership McLean County. A similar collection during move-in days in the fall collected and recycled more than 700 pounds of cardboard.
Just 6 months after installation, two hydration stations at Illinois Wesleyan have diverted the equivalent of more than 32,000 16-ounce, one-time-use water bottles.
Through the efforts of Student Senate, Sierra Student Coalition and Physical Plant, the two hydration stations were installed in the fall of 2012 in the Presser Hall main lobby and the Center for Natural Science lobby, to provide students convenient access to filtered water and reduce single-use water bottles on campus.
The Peace Garden was one of 17 local organizations that received a portion of nearly $8,000 in grant funds for their community garden projects. MCWC recognizes that community gardens bring value to the community by increasing the availability of fresh produce, connecting neighborhoods, providing a healthy activity and teaching important lessons about nature. Successful grant applicants demonstrated how a new or existing community garden will benefit the sponsoring organization and the community as a whole.
Don’t throw it away! Give it away!
In the tradition of Ecology Action Center’s semi-annual FREE-4-ALL, we will be creating an opportunity to give away your unwanted stuff and to take what you like — for free.
Here are the rules:
– Household Items — Knick-knacks, lamps, vases, paintings, prints etc. Items must be clean and in good condition.
– No large furniture.
– Men’s & women’s clothing. (Adult sizes only. Clothes must be clean and in good shape.)
For the Kids — FREE-4-ALL Toy Giveaway!
Bring in your gently used toys to give away to others. Toys must be in good shape (all parts and pieces, etc.) and clean.
Please bring items that deserve a second life to the Wellness Office by Friday, April 5.
Please contact us with questions or if you need help with pick-up, ext. 3334 or wellness@iwu.edu.
Donated items will be available at the Illinois Sustainable Living & Wellness Expo
on Saturday, April 13
9 a.m.-4 p.m.,
Shirk Center
– The IWU Peace Garden is now making weekly deliveries of greens to Station Two Twenty. Danny Kenny ’13 reported at the Feb. 28 GREENetwork meeting that the owner-chefs have visited the garden and are excited about the partnership.
– Student Senate awarded funding to the Sierra Student Coalition to explore the installation of hydration stations in The Ames Library and Hansen Student Center. Hydration stations provide filtered water and encourage the use of refillable water bottles instead of plastic.
The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is also investigating the feasibility of installing a hydration station in the Shirk Center.
Hydration stations have previously been installed in Presser Hall and CNS, and will be available in State Farm Hall.
We’ve heard some disconcerting rumors about recycling on campus, suggesting that IWU does not actually recycle but that all the bags of items set aside for recycling are thrown out with the trash without being looked at.
Let’s demystify this: Supervisor of Labor Services Lawney Gruen collects recycling and trash on campus and sorts it daily. Members of the campus community have participated in ride-alongs with him and his crew, and witnessed these efforts first-hand.
As alarming as this “conspiracy theory” about phony recycling is, it can serve to raise our awareness about the importance of education about recycling — and how everyone’s cooperation is needed to keep contamination from negating our efforts.
Contamination is the only reason that recyclable materials would be thrown away. Particularly, if food or garbage (especially liquids) are mixed in with recycling, a whole bag of items might be discarded because the contamination can’t feasibly be undone and the materials are not suitable for recycling.
The crews from Physical Plant use their professional judgment in evaluating contamination, but each of us can help:
Here are some handy guidelines for what can be recycled.
Some good news: a transition to single-stream recycling next fall will make sorting easier on campus. The town of Normal is terminating its agreement to take our recyclables and will remove the “roll-off” containers at the Shirk Center parking lot, but the University will be contracting with a new vendor and finding new collection sites on campus.
Single-stream recycling means no more sorting paper from cans & bottles! Watch for more information as we make this change.
Based on campus response, textile recycling has been expanded to include collection at the Hansen Student Center, at the front desk of the Memorial Center, and at residence hall desks, in addition to the collection bin at Wellness. Donations benefit Home Sweet Home Ministries (HSHM).
This is a convenient way to drop off unwanted clothing, textiles and shoes. These items will go back to HSHM to be sorted. Usable items will be sold at the Mission Mart, and items past their useful life will be recycled into new textiles and goods. All the proceeds from these efforts go to assist the homeless members of our community.
The Mission is unable to provide a receipt for items dropped off in campus bins. If you need a receipt for your donation, you can take your items to the Mission Mart at 303 E. Oakland Ave., or the Warehouse at 1700 W. Washington in Bloomington.
We have a bit of a trend going among our GREENetwork co-chairs. Two years after Kari Grace ’11 was named Lincoln Laureate, this year’s co-chair, Danny Kenny ’13, became Illinois Wesleyan’s recipient of the 2012 Lincoln Academy of Illinois Student Laureate Award. Read more. (Also this month, he became Illinois Wesleyan’s 114th Academic All-American.) Congrats!
The Ecology Action Center announced that the Sept. 29 Household Hazardous Waste Collection at the Interstate Center in Bloomington drew an unprecedented 1,951 cars carrying the wastes of nearly 3,000 area households and disposed of 161,640 pounds of hazardous waste materials. Members of the Illinois Wesleyan community, including Environmental Studies students, were among the volunteers.
This was the first Household Hazardous Waste event in McLean County to be funded completely by local resources. The Ecology Action Center led fundraising efforts for this private/public partnership, ultimately raising $143,079 to cover the full costs of the effort. Read more.