EAC Students to Bring Trash Bags to Class

As part of their effort to educate Harvard students about the environment and recycling, members of the Phillip Brooks House Environmental Action Committee will drag their trashbags to class this week.

Julie Wong '92 and John Richardson '92, the event's coordinators, said they are expecting between 50 and 70 students to join in the effort by the end of the week. Wong hopes that this demonstration will provide Harvard students "with a concrete idea about how much they throw away in a week."

Wong said statistics such as those published in The Workbook, a recycling magazine, inspired her to launch the project. According to the magazine, Americans produce 20 pounds of waste a day, totaling 1000 pounds per a year.

Wong also cited the Workbook's statistics on the amount of energy savedby recycling. "Virgin materials cost a lot more to process," Wong said. "Aluminum recycling saves 95 percent of the energy which would normally be put into aluminum production, while recycled paper uses only half of the energy that regular production would consume."

Wong said she hopes the project will "get people in the habit of thinking about recycling, and maybe say `oh wait' before they throw something out and remember the recycling box at the bottom of the entryway."

The committee is also sponsoring a series of staged humorous dining hall performance about recycling. Conceived by Lee B. Wexler '92, Dunster House's recycling chair, and Samuel Newell '92, the short act features a dialogue between and environmentalist and "Sam," a lumberjack who threatens to cut down various college house trees.

"We are trying to be real positive about recycling, and get our message across in a different way," Wexler said. He said he hopes the comedy routine will provide a model for other house publicity efforts.

Wexler and Newell said they will continue to perform their act in various Harvard dining halls this week in conjunction with the "Ecolympics," an interhouse recycling competition.

Brian Trelstead '91, one of the leaders of the PBH Environmental Action Committee, explained that "the committee hopes to keep up publicity acts like this but we have no set agenda this fall, everything is pretty much touch and go." Trelstead said that although this year's efforts are less "planned out," he is pleased with the recycling efforts around campus, adding that "the recycling program has gotten off to a better start than last year especially with the cans and bottles drive."

Dartmouth College students introduced the idea of "trashbag week" last year when 100 students and three professors carried trashbags to classes. Trelstead said that such highly visible events help create an "impressive spectacle."