Eco Columbia

The Columbia College Recycling Program is coordinating their fifth annual Donation Drive for the week of April 30-May 6.

Collection boxes will be placed in the lobbies of Buckingham, Dwight Lofts, Plymouth Court, and the University Center for students to donate unwanted items while moving out of the residence halls on campus.

Donations should be gently used items in usable condition such as shoes (with their laces tied together), clothing, linens, books, home décor, kitchenware and so on.

Items that cannot be donated include perishable or open food, as well as items that are dirty, broken, or hazardous. Clothing and other textile products should be put in garbage bags. Hangers should be bagged separately.

Students with questions should contact recycling@colum.edu.

The swap will take place the week of Nov. 7-11.

For the third year in a row, the Columbia Recycling Program will be hosting a Sustainable Swap to encourage students and staff to recycle nontraditional items.

During the week of November 7-11, recycling bins will be present in lobbies all over campus. These bins will accept batteries, cell phones, techno trash (CDs, DVDs, film), plastic bags, and ink cartridges. Students and staff are encouraged to bring items from their offices and departments, or from home.

Bins will be present in the lobbies of the following buildings: 624 S. Michigan, 600 S. Michigan, 618 S. Michigan, 623 S. Wabash, 33 E. Congress, 916 S. Wabash, 1104 S. Wabash, and The Dance Center.

Along with donation bins, The Recycling Program will set up shop in various lobbies to bring advocacy, Pete the Polar Bear, and fun to the campus! (more…)

Join us next Thursday at 623 S. Wabash!

Next week, the Recycling Program will host another screenprinting event to promote reuse within the Columbia community.

Screenprint A Lower Carbon Footprint will be hosted in the Hokin Gallery of 623 S. Wabash on Thursday, Oct. 20^th. Students are invited to bring their own shirt or pick one from a selection provided by the Recycling Program—all of which will be purchased secondhand from local thrift stores or donated from past events such as Manifest, Convocation, etc.

Students who choose to screenprint their shirt can choose from a number of student designs. Including the winning submission of this year’s call for work—which was designed by Jason Curescu. Participants can then hack their shirt to their liking, and use any leftover fabric to make necklaces, scarves, and other crafts.

Event partners will be on hand to help out students who stop by. Anchor Graphics will be leading the screenprinting process. The Columbia College Fashion Association (CCFA) will lead students in demonstrations at an ‘alteration station,’ and students from Michelle Sayset’s Writing & Rhetoric II: Environmental Concerns class will be helping students make patches from leftover shirts.

Arti Sanhu, an associate professor in Columbia’s Fashion Studies department will be talking about her coordination of last year’s Zero Waste exhibit, and to lead a discussion about sustainable practices in fashion and zero-waste design.

 For additional details, visit the event page on Facebook.

On Thursday October 20^th, The Columbia College Recycling Program will be hosting “Screen Print a Smaller Carbon Footprint,” an event to show students the importance of reducing waste and reusing materials instead of throwing them away.

By making small changes to old clothing, something completely new and desirable can be created. We will demonstrate this by allowing students to have a secondhand shirt—acquired from past Columbia events or area thrift stores—and have student-created designs screen-printed on them.

Every year, the Recycling Program chooses a student design and adds another screen to this station. We need your help to create a new design that’s inspired by an environmental topic. (Examples of previous designs can be found here.)

The winner will receive an 8GB iPod Nano donated by the campus Apple Store.

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Shop Columbia can be found at 623 S Wabash Ave.

The Columbia Recycling Program has partnered with ShopColumbia for “Sustainability in the City.”

The event will spotlight student work made from recycled or reused materials. It will be held in the Quincy Wong Center on April 7th from 11am-7pm and feature roughly fifteen different artists.

As early as April 4th, students are encouraged to drop off unused materials for an Art Supply Swap. Suggested materials include paper or canvas, fabric, notions, paint, buttons, zippers, or anything else that could be utilized in art of craft projects.

Students with questions should contact shop@colum.edu.