Earth and Film Club Members Use Earth Day
to Raise Recycling Awareness
The sun made a guest appearance on Earth Day this year as students
gathered on the Queens campus to celebrate the University’s ongoing
commitment to sustainability. Fifty-two students signed a
pledge to “reduce energy consumption, reuse and
recycle.” Film and Earth Club students joined forces to
complete a film about St. John’s recycling initiatives.
The event took place on April 22 on the Great Lawn in front of the
St. Augustine Library.
As the Film Club documented the event, the Earth Club did a waste
separation of the previous night’s trash collected from St. John’s
Hall and the D’Angelo Center. “Our analysis revealed that students
are recycling only a small proportion of recyclable waste,” said
Erin Chalmers, ’11Ed, the Earth Club’s incoming President. “The
findings,” she added, “underscore the need for the film’s message
to be communicated throughout the University.”
St. John’s will enter the video in the New York State Association
for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling, Inc. (NYSAR3) video contest via
YouTube (www.youtube.com). The competition, cosponsored by Alcoa,
is open to all New York area colleges and universities. Winners
will be announced on May 17 at the New York Federation Solid Waste
Association’s Solid Waste and Recycling Conference scheduled to
take place on May 16 through May 19 at the Sagamore Hotel on Lake
George.
“We are vying for first place,” said Thomas Goldsmith, Director of
Environmental and Energy Conservation, who will be a featured
speaker at the conference. The prize for first place is 1,000
recycling bins which, should St. John’s win, will be used in
University classrooms.
“Our objective is to use the film to raise student awareness about
what they can do to make St. John’s a green school,” said Erin. “We
want to show that the University has state-of-the-art waste
reduction capabilities, but that it is up to our students to use
them.” “The first half of the film was shot at Filco Carting’s
landfill in Brooklyn where St. John’s trash is dumped and recycled,
explained Film Club President Katie McVeay, ’10 CPS. “The film is
one of the ways we, as students, are trying to rally fellow
students to start small by shutting lights off, reusing waste where
possible and thinking of recycling as the last resort,” she
said.