Earth Day, an annual celebration on April 22, was celebrated in the Brickyard between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and included more than 80 vendors and displays. Some of the displays were from campus groups or organizations, groups in Wake County, as well as a few statewide groups.
University Housekeeping had a display that showed the ways they are “going green.” Kim Dunn-Danzy and Chris Leach, both building environmental technicians with University Housekeeping, and Randy Reed, a building environmental manager with University Housekeeping, were present to share the ways that Housekeeping has gone green and how they are working to improve the environment.
“We used to use 905 chemicals that were really harsh, but now everything we use in Housekeeping is green,” Dunn-Danzy said. “They all have the green symbol on them.
We’re trying to make everything better for us and for the students on campus.”
Housekeeping is using new machines that are safer and better on the environment along with the green cleaning supplies. Even Pest Management on campus has gone green. As a method of pest management, Housekeeping uses Rodent Traps, which are a green version of mouse traps.
“Instead of using harsh germ killing chemicals, we use the Ionator,” Leach said. “We put tap water into it and by using battery power, [it] heats the water so it is hot, which kills germs just as well as the harsh chemicals.”
Nessa Stone, operations manager for Waste Reduction and Recycling, said the Waste Reduction and Recycling are doing all they can to help reduce waste. Waste Reduction and Recycling sponsors the Pack-N-Go sale at the end of the spring semester. They are also in charge of placing walkway recycling receptacles.
“Part of what we’re going out here is promoting [the] Pack-N-Go sale, which is a way that we prevent used items from college dorms, such as sofas and bed sheets, from going to the dump,” Stone said. “We sell the items back to people who need them.”
According to Stone, the response to Earth Day in the Brickyard was good.
“We’ve had great responses to our display, and it seems like other displays have had good responses as well,” Stone said. “It’s been pretty fun today being out here.”
Lee Xiong, a freshman in biomedical engineering, said he attended the celebration. He said he found it to be good. In high school, Xiong said he was the president of the Environmental Club.
“I found the event to be a lot of fun,” Xiong said. “In the short run, I think this will make some people more aware of environmental issues. But in the long run, I don’t think anyone will really be affected by this. A few people might be changed by going to the booths and displays, but for the most part, I don’t think anyone will change.”
Some of the other displays included Wake County Solid Works Management Division, Engineers Without Borders and The N.C. Green Party.
The N.C. Green Party is a political party that is trying to gain enough signatures on their petitions to be a legal party in North Carolina. They were collecting signatures at the event. In all, the organization said it needs about 85,000 signatures.
