BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – This semester, the Titans proved their green spirit extends beyond the athletic arena.
In January, Illinois Wesleyan University’s campus dining service Sodexo joined forces with Illinois State University (ISU) and others to participate in a composting program diverting leftover food away from the county landfill and onto an ISU farm in Lexington, Ill. for reuse. Since the effort began, it has saved over 35,496 pounds of food from the Bertholf Commons, faculty dining areas and large catering events. IWU Director of Government and Community Relations Carl Teichman, who served as co-coordinator of IWU’s environmental council GREENetwork during the 2010-2011 academic year, reported that the project could soon expand to include Tommy’s and the DugOut.
In February, the same green mindset driving the composting program prompted the Recycling Education Committee (REC), a branch of GREENetwork, to join the national RecycleMania initiative. Held at colleges across the country for a 10-week period each spring, RecycleMania aims to reduce waste production by ranking and rewarding schools based on recycling skills.