Think Green!

The Student Government Association is thinking green and wants to make "Think Green!" a convenient choice for ASU students.

The goals of "Think Green!" include promoting earth-friendly behavior and making such behavior convenient for students, Hillary Colvard, SGA secretary, said.

Ways to achieve convenience include improving the locations of recycling bins by making them more obvious. SGA wants to make recycling a more common occurrence on campus.

"It's only common sense to take care of the place in which we live and our home away from home," Colvard said.

Other SGA members agreed.

John-Scott Carroll, chief of staff, said there is a campus environment committee associated with "Think Green!" Any interested student may join this committee, which is currently working with the administration, to make the ASU campus more "green."

One notable accomplishment of the "Think Green!" plan is the SGA initiative approved for the university to recycle plastic. The university's approval of the initiative was officially announced April 22 during an Earth Day celebration.

The University also has its own recycling program. The ASU Web site notes the facilities management-recycling program allows for collection services and initial sorting of campus recyclables in league with custodial services.

Custodians bring recyclables to a centralized area for the recycling staff to pick up and transport to the recycling center at the west end of facilities management. Facilities management also provides bins for personal recycling.

Meanwhile, SGA has been working to improve the recycling program since the 2008-2009 SGA presidential elections.

"Think Green!" originated as part of the campaign platform for SGA President Ryan Beaird and Vice President Quan Poole. It was established to motivate students to go "green" in their everyday lives.

Students can go "green" in their every day lives by using scrap paper to print rough drafts and washing full loads of laundry. Standard washing machines use 40 gallons of water per load. Students can also help by not wasting food in the cafeteria. According to an SGA flyer, several hundred pounds of food go to waste in the cafeteria every day.

A "Tray-less Wednesday" will be held next week by dining services in Acansa dining hall. The one-day event will demonstrate how going tray-less on campus can save water, energy, chemicals, food waste and help students eat less.

A similar event was held last year. Over 400 pounds of food waste and thousands of gallons of water was saved.