Earth Week events begin with recycled art display, 'Don't Be Trashy'
Earth Week 2014 has a new event at Central Michigan University.
"Don't Be Trashy," held Monday in the Charles V. Park Library Atrium, was part of a week-long series of Earth Week events on campus, encouraging students and Mount Pleasant residents to enter a piece of artwork made from recycled, reused or salvaged materials.
"We liked the idea of getting people to create their own hands-on experience with sustainability by reusing items and giving them a new purpose as art," said Jacquelyn Baker, Earth Week's promotional manager. "It's a thought-provoking thing, to create something out of what would otherwise have been discarded, and it does the same thing for the people who see the art."
The Bay City senior said the purpose of the event was to help create a new perspective on waste materials and urge participants and attendees to take environmental issues more seriously.
"When the student planning committee was brainstorming ideas for events, an art competition using recycled materials was one of the first things we came up with," Baker said. "It makes you think twice about throwing something away and opens your eyes to all these great things that can be done with something that others might consider trash."
Some of the entries included a large flower made from plastic water bottles found around campus that was submitted by the Take Back The Tap organization. Another popular submission was the "Oberon Lamp," entered by seniors Robert Bidner and Caitlin Richards, which used repurposed materials.
"We've been planning for the past four months," said Sarah Robinson, Earth Week's community relations director and Grand Ledge senior. "We really wanted people to take away from this event how much waste we produce and how items can be repurposed and reused."
The event was a collaboration between many of the eco-friendly registered student organizations on campus, including the Student Environmental Alliance, Take Back The Tap, Campus Grow and members from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Divest CMU, a student and faculty-run group that is not a registered student organization, contributed to the event as well.
The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe Environmental Team was also present to show its support for the competition entries and to provide information about how to improve our community.
Of the submissions entered, Take Back The Tap won the group award for their plastic water bottle flower sculpture.
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