Harvard Students Recycle and Swap Items at Annual Earth Day Event

In sunny 70-degree weather, dozens visited the Harvard Office for Sustainability’s annual Earth Day celebration in the Science Center Plaza Tuesday afternoon, milling about a number of booths representing sustainability efforts on campus and across the city of Cambridge.

Tuesday’s event featured bike tune ups, recycling of electronics, a donation drive, and an exchange of goods — clothing, books, ceramics, and technology, even a free MacBook — along with various sustainable Harvard student organizations like the Phillips Brooks House Association.

“It’s a collaboration of offices across Harvard. The Forest is here, the Arboretum, et cetera. And we’re really celebrating Earth Day, celebrating climate action and commitment to sustainability,” said David J. Havelick, the associate director of the Office of Sustainability.

“This is a labor of love, and it’s a collaboration,” he added. “It all comes together on a beautiful day like today.”

Harvard Recycling Services Supervisor Dailey Brannin pointed to hosting “free cycles” — the trading and acquiring of free items — on campus as a method to influence students to be more mindful of the environment.

“Promoting reuse, you know — keeping things out of the landfill and keeping items living for longer,” she said.

Students enthusiastically attended the event and took advantage of the multitude of “cool, sustainable options to choose from,” according to Ryan A. Lopez ’28, a Crimson news editor.

“It’s very fun to see people foraging for other items that people might deem as trash,” said Lopez.

Some students who attended the celebration said it opened their eyes to pressing environmental issues and the need to prevent wasteful consumption.

“It’s just about being mindful of those things. And, you know, making an effort to reuse, thrift, all that good stuff,” Megha Khemka ’28 said.

“It makes you really think about it in a way, that it puts it right in your face, that look — there’s so much waste that we do have in our everyday lives,” Maria F. Cifuentes ’26 said, adding it was “the first time” she really thought about Earth Day “since high school.”

Several students who attended the event said they appreciated the opportunity to conveniently make more sustainable choices by swapping old items.

Student Lorena Alvarez ’27 said that “being able to give people the opportunity to bring their stuff in and trade other things, I think, is great.”

“Reducing our waste, reducing our consumption really goes a long way,” Hailey E. Akey ’27 said.

Participation in Earth Day celebrations extended beyond the Plaza, as many students spent time outside around campus, enjoying the warmer weather.

“Since it’s been so cold here in Cambridge, I’ve just been sitting out in the open in the yard, basking in the sunlight, enjoying nature,” Jacari M. Dillard ’28 said.

According to Cifuentes, a Crimson Arts editor, Tuesday’s Earth Day event brought together Harvard undergraduates, families, and faculty members.

“It’s not just students, but the whole community that lives around here,” she said. “It’s a moment for us to connect with them too.”