With another Earth Day come and gone, Texas A&M University—Kingsville ended its week-long, eco-aware Earth Week fair.
From April 16 to 20, TAMUK’s Office of Campus Sustainability hosted a range of competitions, presentations, outings, and even a painting class; all in the name of promoting positive habits to benefit the local ecosystem and spreading awareness of possible harms that come with society’s reliance on plastic.
“This year the theme was to end plastic pollution. So, we wanted to show the students all the various ways that you can do that. Whether it is recycling, or upcycling, like what they did in the competitions,” Kelli-Mae Goddard Sobers, director of the office of campus sustainability said. “We wanted to show that you can take these things and help create some sort of use for it, and that it can be fun.”
The biggest event of the week was a plastic structure competition, during which competitors had to recycle plastic objects and containers and craft them into recognizable structures or functioning devices. The reward for sticking to the competition’s restrictions and being judged the finest example of reuse was a $300 prize.
This year, for the first time, the competition ended in a tie between a fish tank made from recycled water containers and an operational water filter. The two devices will be judged again in a second round, during which the devices will be placed side by side and tested for functionality. The competitors will be allowed to defend their entries to the judges for their ultimate decision.
Considering the change in rules, the office of sustainability decided to add a cash prize of $225 to the runner-up while the winner of the second round, and the competition gets to keep the original $300 reward.
Other notable entries were a tent made of plastic bags, a curtain made of the bottoms of metal cans, and a shelf made of wood and cut pieces of a plastic barrel. Alongside the competition, some UNIV engineering classes presented miniature gardens that were constructed and placed in wooden boxes.
Earth Week began with a number of crafting events. On Monday, students could construct self-watering plant pots, while on Tuesday participants crafted terrariums, or sealed glass containers filled with soil and plant-life to simulate a micro-ecosystem. Tuesday was also the day the university hosted a sustainability-themed Jeopardy, complete with its own version of Alex Trebek.
While three students competed to win grand prizes that totaled $450 altogether, other students were encouraged to engage in the thought-provoking trivia using the app Kahoot to manage all the attendees’ answers.
The Office of Sustainability’s eco-representatives developed upwards of 70 questions to ask at the event for the students; eventually culminating in Michael Cardoza walking away with the first-prize award, a flat screen TV. Runner-up Ethan James and third place winner Delanie Slifma were awarded a DBL speaker and Beats headphones, respectively.
“We had a great time,” said Eliasz McCullen, sustainability operations coordinator. “We provided some snacks and refreshments, had our trivia time. It was lively, I will say it was lively and people were very ecstatic about the prizes we ended up handing out.”
Last week wasn’t just about crafts and trivia, but also a chance to present information to the public about the issues impacting global health and conservation. Matthew Cruz, an eco-representative at the office of campus sustainability, presented “What you don’t know: how plastics are affecting your life!” during a luncheon Wednesday, April 18.
The presentation focused on the personal health issues that may arise from using plastics, the problematic nature of breaking down plastics, and society’s reliance on plastics.
The week closed out with a free painting class complete with mocktails; while still incorporating the week’s theme of reusing plastic.
The water that was used during the painting was collected from rain, biodegradable pallets and paint were used, and the bottoms of plastic bottles acted as cups for the evening’s painters.
The Office of Campus Sustainability finished out the week of events by upholding its mission to promote green initiatives and their implementation and citing its definition of sustainability as, “Sustainability is the adherence to principles and practices that meets the needs of the present without compromising the future.”