The Green Grove Initiative was one of the first programs started by the Office of Sustainability to reduce the amount of waste produced on gamedays through recycling.
Kendall McDonald, intern and junior public policy leadership major, said the group is working toward recycling the Solo cups used by patrons on gamedays in the Grove.
“We are currently working to add Solo cups to our recycling repertoire, alongside plastic bottles and aluminum cans,” McDonald said. “In the past, we haven’t been able to recycle Solo cups because Oxford Recycling hasn’t had the capacity to do so.”
According to McDonald, a group called TerraCycle is paying to ship Solo cups to its facilities and will even donate money to a charity of the group’s choice per cup recycled. The initiative is also currently working on opening up online ordering for the “I Tree Grove” shirts due to popular demand.
There are currently three other students interning with the Office of Sustainability; Grace Haines, Jillian Cowart and Kay Kay DeRossette.
DeRossette, a senior exercise science major, has been involved since the fall of 2011. She said that although it has been extremely time-intensive, she has enjoyed the experience.
“Being able to run with ideas and improve something as large as recycling efforts for one of the most popular tailgating experiences in the nation is definitely an opportunity that will lead me in the right direction with both graduate school and my future career,” DeRossette said.
Prior to the start of the program, there had been some efforts to recycle by various volunteer groups, but Assistant Director of the Office of Sustainability Anne McCauley said the initiative needed more resources to get to the next level.
Junior international studies major Grace Haines began interning this fall with the Office of Sustainability and has worked to perfect the Green Grove Initiative, which has received lots of attention since last football season.
“After only a few games, we have already surpassed last season’s final total of collected recyclables,” she said. “We have expanded the program by outreaching to different student organizations and making it more visible on social media to attract more attention.”
According to McDonald, there are usually around 100 volunteers per game. These volunteers pass out green bags to tents and educate tailgaters about their impact, and then some volunteers choose to come back the following week and sort through recycling.
“We have so many volunteer opportunities for students to volunteer with the Green Grove program, from doing outreach directly to fans and tailgaters to actually doing the sorting of the recycling that we collect from game days,” McDonald said. “Both experiences are meaningful, and students are usually impacted by their work. We say that our volunteer sorters are transformed into the best recyclers once they leave. It is meaningful work, and it is work we seriously depend on for the functioning of our program.”
— Jessi Ballard
