Student Organizations

Residence hall students can forget trekking outside to the dumpsters to recycle their cans and cardboard boxes. Starting this week, Housing and Food Services (HFS) is implementing a revised recycling plan in hopes of significantly reducing the amount of waste residence halls produce.

With the new single-stream bin program, students can recycle without leaving their floors or sorting items into separate containers.

HFS facilities manager Michael Glidden said the plan will make recycling convenient and simple.

Biodiesel sounds like a concept straight out of Back to the Future. Yet instead of powering up a time machine, the French Fry Fuel FOols (the first O is intentionally capitalized for no real reason, according to the club) use waste from fast food to power ordinary cars.

Ravi Mikkelsen, president of the club, formed the group after participating in a UW project dealing with different forms of energy. He was motivated by the lack of resources on campus for students wanting to create their own biodiesel.

In recognition of Earth Week, environmentally friendly UW student groups have set up camp on the HUB lawn with the hopes of spreading the word about how to get involved and make a difference through awareness.

As this is its largest event of the year, the UW Earth Club has called upon its fellow environmentalists, including FlexCar, the UW Recycle Center and the French Fry Fuel Fools, to participate in Earth Week events.

Residents of McCarty South acquired matching dorm accessories last night when students lugged recycling boxes back to their rooms.

Members of Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED) kicked off their pilot recycling project, People's Action for Paper Recycling (PAPR), by distributing boxes to dorm residents with the goal of making paper recycling more convenient in dorm rooms.

For Terry Hall resident Erik Luthy, recycling isn't as easy as the slogan implies. When his Trader Joe's shopping bag, which serves as a makeshift recycling bin, accumulates a week's worth of cardboard cereal boxes and newspapers, Luthy makes the long trek to the recycling bins outside the residence hall.

While the radioactive waste stored at Hanford Nuclear Reservation is 220 miles from the UW campus, 15 students emphasized their belief that these toxins impact the UW community by demonstrating on the HUB lawn yesterday.

Donning lab goggles and painter's masks, the students were dressed in yellow imitation biohazard suits.

These demonstrators, representing the Washington State Public Interest Research Group (WashPIRG), were spreading the message that the situation at Hanford "affects everyone," according to member Alicia Boulet.

Hundreds of students turned out for the Earth Day rally held on the HUB lawn yesterday, which was the capstone event for the UW Earth Club's activities this week.

The club erected large displays in Red Square, the Quad and on the HUB lawn for the past three days with tables, signs and many volunteers from other clubs. Each year, the Earth Club's goals and focus change depending on relevant local issues.

"I've always kind of been a paper Nazi," said Ryan Jones, a UW junior in physics. "I do everything on recycled paper."

Jones is among those students who take recycling seriously. In fact, he's taken his doctrine of "waste not, want not" to a new level by becoming a member of Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED), a student interest group committed to raising recycling awareness on campus, specifically in the residence halls.

According to Jones, SEED members would like to see the University provide better paper-recycling accessibility in the dorms.

If you happen to be jogging through the wetlands on any given afternoon, you might see some strange-looking activities occurring in the far northeast corner of campus. In a small, open-sided structure, a dedicated group of students are attempting to revolutionize the way we fill up our gas tanks.

It might sound funny, but it is possible to power a diesel engine with no petroleum products whatsoever. This is the direction that the Urban Sustainability Group (Ursus) would like to see society moving in.

The International Socialist Organization is hosting a discussion on genetically modified food at 7 p.m. today in room 30 of the Social Work Building, which is located on the corner of 15th Avenue and Northeast 41st Street.

Kent Arimura will lead the discussion on the effects of genetically modified food, including the BST milk hormone. He will closely inspect whether corporations or society is benefiting from genetically modified foods.