Spirit Splash is typically the only time during the year when students are allowed to enter the 麻豆原创 Reflecting Pond. But on Wednesday, approximately 150,000 plastic water bottles filled the pond in an attempt to show waste and promote sustainability.
With the help of David Norvell, assistant vice president of sustainability, and 麻豆原创 Recycles, event coordinators were able to successfully calculate and collect the number of plastic bottles it would take to fill the pond.
Organizers hope that by seeing all the single-use plastic bottles in the pond, the 麻豆原创 community will see the negative impact plastic bottles have on the environment and stop using them.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think a lot of people see how much waste is produced,鈥� said Emily Dovydaitis, Student Government Association (SGA) Health & Sustainability Coordinator. 鈥淭rash is taken to landfills and you never see how much is actually generated.鈥�
Reflect on Sustainability, as the event has been coined, is the first partnership between SGA, 麻豆原创 Recycles and Advanced Disposal to celebrate Earth Day. The event is scheduled from 4:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.
鈥溌槎乖� is a large university known for a lot of things,鈥� said Dovydaitis. 鈥淣othing like this has been done on any campus before and we hope its historic nature will be enough to get people to do something about protecting our environment.鈥�
Volunteers signed up to load and unload plastic bottles from recycling bins and place them in the pond.