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.

Designed by Jason Curescu.

Check out the new design for the Columbia Recycling Program’s screenprinting initiative. Designed by Jason Curescu, a transfer student in the Graphic Design department, the cassette tape was inspired by the event’s theme of reuse.

When he initially started brainstorming ideas for a design, Curescu tried to think of items that can be reused and then ultimately recycled. ”I chose the cassette because it’s something that rarely gets used anymore and…you can always reuse old cassette tapes [by recording] new stuff over the old music,” he explains.

Curescu’s design will be used at next week’s Screenprint a Lower Carbon Footprint event. Hosted by the Recycling Program, the event is free for students and staff and will feature screenprinting, t-shirt hacking, and patch making. More details can be found here.

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.

Have some old shirts laying around? Make ‘em like new again at next week’s Screen Print to Lower Your Carbon Footprint event.

Sponsored by the Recycling Program, the event aims to promote reuse amongst students. Staff members will be hanging out in the lobby of 623 S Wabash next Wednesday so stop by between 12-4pm to pick from two designs and multiple colors. Leave with a new style on your shirt at no charge!

The event is technically BYOS (Bring Your Own Shirt). However, there will be blank shirts in a multitude of colors and sizes available for purchase at a minimal price. All of them have been purchased from local thrift stores but supplies are limited.

Hope to see you there!