EcoReps

Hello! My name is Christina, and I am the new UW Sustainability Projects Assistant. I'll be going into my sophomore year at UW this fall, and I am pursuing a double-degree in Environmental Studies and Environmental Science & Terrestrial Resource Management. I'm also the Membership & Service-Learning Coordinator for EcoReps, so I can answer any EcoReps related questions! I enjoy hiking, photography, and taking care of plants.

Sustainability in the arts, greening health sciences, and certifications for student groups. Selling succulents for sustainability, greening the Greek community, and leading local markets. The students of UW EcoReps work on sustainability initiatives that have an impact on many different aspects of the University of Washington.

How often do you sit down to a meal and think about the journey it took to arrive in front of you? Like most of us, probably not that often. In the age of take-out meals and cheap frozen dinners, it’s easy to disregard thinking about where your food comes from, where it goes, and who it affects.

As food moves from farm to table, it affects everyone in the system. From the farmers to the consumers, and everyone else along the way, issues of food justice and food sovereignty greatly impact communities all around the world.

This Earth Day, one green-minded club geared up for a big weekend of recycling clothes. For the first time ever, UW EcoReps partnered with Crossroads Trading Company for a fundraiser honoring Earth Day. Members of the local community were encouraged to stop by Crossroads' University Way and NE 43rd St location. If they sold an article of clothing and mentioned EcoReps, $5 was donated to the club's charity of choice.

This has been a busy year for the UW EcoReps. To be honest, we’ve already done so much that it’s hard to boil it all down to a few paragraphs. As a new member and first time officer, I’ve learned a lot about sustainability from working with this group. EcoReps started off the year with only two members, and slowly grew to the 15 volunteers that represent us today. It’s been quite a journey, but one that was well worth the effort!

The University of Washington’s Seattle campus won the 2017 PAC-12 Grand Champion award during RecycleMania, a national collegiate waste diversion tournament. The 786 metric tons of CO2 that UW kept out of the landfill is equivalent to the total amount of energy consumption of 68 households, or removing 154 cars off the road.

The student organization EcoReps supported UW Recycling’s efforts in generating event awareness on campus this year. 

At the five-week mark of RecycleMania, the University of Washington continues to lead the Pac-12 in the recycling competition.

The UW's Seattle campus is well ahead of the other Pac-12 schools and is in 31st place out of the 178 schools competing. UW Bothell is doing even better, in 26th place. According to RecycleMania, UW Seattle has recycled more than four pounds of material for every person on campus - a total of nearly 500,000 pounds recycled. 

One month of RecycleMania numbers are in, and the University of Washington continues to lead the Pac-12 by a wide margin.

Halfway through the eight-week competition, UW's Seattle campus has a recycling rate of 54.66 percent. The closest Pac-12 school is Stanford, at just over 43 percent. UW's Seattle campus is 29th overall among the 172 schools participating, and UW Bothell is just ahead in 27th place.

After two weeks of the nation-wide RecycleMania competition, UW Seattle remains in the lead among all Pac-12 schools, and is 25th overall. RecycleMania is a friendly tournament where national college campuses compete during the course of eight weeks to see which can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste.

The first week of RecycleMania is completed, and the results are in. After one week, UW Seattle is in 21st place among all 115 schools in the competition, with UW Bothell one spot behind. RecycleMania is a friendly tournament where national college campuses compete during the course of eight weeks to see which can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste.