Student Organizations

Tomorrow, students from WashPIRG chapters at the UW, as well as Evergreen State College, Whitman, Western Washington and Green River Community College will be taking their Campus Climate Challenge to Olympia for a day of environmental awareness and advocacy.

WashPIRG members will be meeting with several state representatives and senators to discuss four environmentally progressive bills, which they hope will be passed by the end of the current legislative session on March 12.

Students in the residence halls are struggling to eat their food. The chief culprits in this dilemma are the compostable, corn-based cutlery now being used by Housing and Food Services (HFS) as part of a composting and recycling program.

The new cutlery was implemented this year as part of the larger composting program instituted last February. HFS ultimately hopes to achieve a "zero waste target" through this program.

"Last year, we bought over 3,000,000 forks, knives and spoons, and they all went to a landfill," said Michael Meyering, HFS project manager.

The UW Custodial Services is kicking the bucket and replacing it with a new program called Green Cleaning, intended to reduce the UW's impact on the environment.

The UW Custodial Services and environmental groups such as Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED) are working to make the University community a more environmentally friendly place not only in the dorms, but also on campus as a whole.

Recycling locations:

1. Bloedel Hall, second floor

2. Anderson Hall, main floor

3. Winkenwerder Hall, main floor

4. HUB main hallway

5. University Facilities Building, lower floor

6. Gerberding Hall, basement level

7. CSE - Allen Center main floor

A great deal of food is thrown away everyday and the UW is taking an active stance to improve a global problem starting with the residence halls.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton marked 25 percent as the amount of the U.S. food supply that is wasted daily, reported stopthehunger.com, an informational Web site regarding hunger.

This quarter, SEED has developed the Lander Compost Pilot Project, a new experiment in effect in Lander Hall that hopes to make composting an accessible source of recycling in residence halls.

Going green is trendy right now, but does it really apply to students? After all, most students don't own homes, and many cannot come close to affording a hybrid car.

Seattle has a 22.2-acre footprint per person

U.S. average: 23.8-acre footprint per person

Test your eco-footprint:

Visit www.ecofoot.org or

www.carbonfootprint.com.

Small Appliances

Blender: 200

Bread maker: 600

Coffee maker: 1200

Earth Fair

When: 10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Where: HUB lawn

Earth Day is April 22.

The day of action was started in 1970, a time when, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, "rivers caught fire and cities were hidden under dense clouds of smoke." Twenty million people celebrated the first Earth Day, with numbers growing ever since. To get involved, check out these Web sites:

A Supreme Court ruling earlier this month ordering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take action to limit the amount of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere could make profound changes throughout the country.

The Supreme Court decision stated, "A well-documented rise in global temperatures has coincided with a significant increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere."

The amount of materials recycled on campus has more than doubled since UW Housing and Food Services (HFS) introduced its new recycling plan in January.

Before the plan was initiated, campus recycling totals were 14.34 tons a month. By February, monthly campus totals rose to 34.94, with 20 tons of new recyclables originating from the residence halls alone, said Pat Kaufman, HFS recycling program operations manager.

The ASUW is looking to make the campus greener by helping the University produce some of its own fuel.

The ASUW Board of Directors (BOD) formed a committee to push biodiesel use on campus last week.

The committee wants to persuade the UW Motor Pool to power its vehicles with fuel made from cooking oil, said Karl Smith, ASUW's director of operations.

The task force was formed after the UW Biodiesel Alliance, a student group, appealed to the board for support last week, Smith said.