By Olivia Nicoletti
Clothing swap, make-your-own recycling bin, tie dye shirts and freebies: the Office of Sustainability had another hit at Sustainability Day on Oct. 20 on the Campus Green in front of Cranberry’s.
This day was in promotion of National Campus Sustainability Day which means it was an event that went further than just Rider’s campus. Rider participated alongside other college campuses across the country, according to Director of Sustainability Melissa Greenberg.
There was no doubt that this event would take off once again this year, but Greenberg echoed that sentiment, saying, “it’s been a very positive vibe; everyone seems to be enjoying it, and the weather is just beautiful.”
There was a plethora of tables that lined the patio of Cranberry’s where different organizations represented their reason to support sustainability.
Each year the clothing swap is highly anticipated by students. The swap, also known as the pop-up thrift store, is put in place to promote “donating clothes and getting used clothes instead of brand new,” according to junior environmental science major Madison Beucler.
Juliette Manners, a sophomore musical theater major, hosted the Broadway Green Alliance table where she promoted sustainability in musical theater, plays, operas, dance and any other performance areas.
The alliance supports measures like using a QR code instead of multiple sign-in sheets during rehearsals and encouraging recycling drives for stage makeup and electronics.
Manners said, “Our biggest goal right now is to switch out all of our lights in all the theaters to LEDs to save that energy, because that will make a huge difference over time.”
The idea is to continue to keep sustainability in mind when working on productions at Rider.
“It could be a cast member, it could be someone on crew, a stage manager, costume designer — anyone involved in production just reminding people to use reusable water bottles, reminding people to pick up their bobby pins instead of throwing them out in the trash and stuff like that,” Manners said. “A little bit goes a long way.”
The Transfer Student Association had white T-shirts with the slogan “Rider Ready” so students who have transferred to Rider could tie-dye their own shirts.
Their involvement in the event was a part of National Transfer Student Week which was from Oct. 17 to 21.
The Eco Reps had a station dedicated to making mini recycling bins for student’s rooms in hopes they begin separating their trash before taking it out.
“There’s a lot of people on campus and they just have their trash can in their dorm and they just end up throwing away all their recyclables but now you can make your own bin and then we go take your trash out you can bring your recyclables as well,” according to Eco Rep and junior environmental science major Ashley Murphy.
Greenberg recognized this event to be more than just promoting sustainability, she said, “It also is just an opportunity to talk to students about sustainability in general. Get them to participate in our programs, let them know about different initiatives we have going on and give them a chance to have some face to face meetings with our Eco Reps.”
By the middle of the event Greenberg had already seen that a lot of people had signed up for the affiliate program, she saw a lot of people making their own recycle bins and taking clothing from the Swap Shop.
The Eco Reps continue to host events on campus and they are excited to promote upcoming beach sweeps and on-campus events to help promote sustainability to students.
