Meeting Minutes

2/17/11 Eco-Rep Meeting, 5:30pm, Dod Basement

Water Retrofit Project

• E-quad finished

Plastic Bag Recycling

•Will be ordering bubble crates to test mount in laundry rooms

Brita Water Filter Distribution

• Table at Frist, next Tuesday, 1-6 pm, need people for set-up and clean-up

• Charge $1 for each pitcher

• Access to a golf cart for transporting

Residential Education Program

• Contacted by RCA- Butler study break the week of the 20th, may be pushed to the following week

• Greening Princeton is interested in the project, meeting tomorrow at 4:30 to see what ideas they have

RecycleMania

• Table will be up in Frist

• Week 1 results are out

Food Audit

• Will hammer out how to handle the scales

• How many ounces of food are wasted per meal

• Auditing all of the dining halls

Reunions

• We will be talking to or educating the crews who work each reunion site to make things more sustainable by making the crew quickly sort between recyclables and non-recyclables

• Give an award to the most sustainable Reunions tent/crew team. Problem: getting an objective way of recycling

• Focusing on sites that are not the 5th?

• Two team sweeps- first for recyclables and then for trash

• Recycling bins at the bar

• Monitoring the sites to see if the bins are used

• Clancy award to the best crew- factor in sustainability?

End-of-the-Year Collection

• Locations closer to Elm Drive so we can have vehicle access

U-Store

• Enthusiastic about being greener about products provided and general recycling. Anyone interested in working with the U-Store?

New Project

• Compilation of green blurbs for the weekly residential college newsletters

 

11/11/2010, Thursday, 5:00-6:30 pm @ Frist, General Meeting

9/30/2010, Thursday, 5:30-6:30pm Dod Basement- General Meeting

Attendance: Bing, Karen, Stephanie, Jen, Aimee, Rodrigo, Renee, Anna, Leo, Kohei, Chrissy

Minutes Taken By: Aimee

Future Agenda

Stephanie

Renee and Rodrigo

Leo and Kohei

5/4/2010, Tuesday, 5:30-6:15pm Dod Basement- General Meeting

Attendance: Bing, Karen, Stephanie, Jen, Aimee, Rodrigo, Renee, Anna

Minutes Taken By: Aimee

o  Karen: Reunions

§   Shirts have been ordered

§   We need recycling sticks on poles. Because this year is a superheroes theme, we need to incorporate this into a recycle and reuse sign!

§   We may meet with crews and train them regarding sustainability (Tuesday and Wednesday before Reunions? And then evaluation on Friday?)

o  Jen: Waste Audit

§   People who have signed up for Wednesday, 2pm in front of Witherspoon: Jen, Bing, Aimee, Kohei, Rodrigo, and Chrissy. It should take less than 2 hours. Bing will bring his camera while Kohei will bring his appetite! We may try and see how many bottles are in each bag, etc. (Maybe a person can do one bag and then move on to another dumpster if it doesn’t take long). Logistics will be determined tomorrow.

§  As for Friday, continue as planned. We’ll come up with a meeting place for Friday at the end of the Audit tomorrow.

o  Karen: Class Day

§  We need to stencil the Eco-Reps Reunions shirt design on 100 recycle bins.

§  We also need to bring the recycling bins up campus and make sure people recycle the boxed lunch container.

o   Anna: Cell phone recycling

§  The collection bin is currently situated next to the Frist FedEX box. We’ve decided on only one donation location for now.

o   Karen: Nalgene Giveaway to Freshmen 2014

§  Shana wants to keep the map on the Nalgenes for next year, but this may require future discussion.

4/20/2010, Tuesday, 4:30pm Dod Basement – General Meeting

Attendance: Aimee, Jen, Leo, Stephanie, Emma, Anna, Renee, Bing

Minutes Taken By: Bing

o   Jen:

§  Plastic bag update: Attempted to contact U-Store manager Mr. Augustine, but he was not there. Emailed HilexPoly Sunday asking for price estimate, times and methods of pickup, and other miscellaneous information. So far, has not received a response, but will wait another week or so.

§  Waste audit: It is set for Monday, May 3rd at Witherspoon and Friday May 7th with location TBA both at 2pm. So far, the people who have signed up are Jen, Leo, Stephanie, Renee, Aimee, Bing (Friday only). [Update: Bike drive will be during exam period, so it will not interfere with the waste audit.]

o   Leo:

§  Composting: Grad. college is starting a composting program, and the compost would go to Princeton Garden. Current project aims at extending that to the undergraduate class. Eventual goal would be to have compost bins by recycling and garbage bins. As a good first step, we should aim to have a compost collection bin at Frist Campus Center, or perhaps at Spelman Hall, Brown Co-op, and 2-Dickinson St. Co-op. Will research further and look at the composting bins at the Lawrence apartments.

o   Anna:

§  Cell phone collection: Met with Laurie Hall – there will be a permanent spot in 100 level Frist for the cell phone collection. Will email for kiosk.

o   Stephanie:

§  LED Light-bulbs: If there is a handout, it will have to be in the fall and will probably be CFL handout. Contact SURGE to see if they are doing CFL handout. LED handout will probably be more realistic when the price per bulb goes below $15. Currently focusing on education campaign, and the poster-board will be at Earthday and Princeton Preview Activities Fair.

o   Emma:

§  Brita Water Filters: Currently in the process of contacting Graduate Student Government to have a distribution of water filters to the apartments. In touch with GSG or its environmental extension and awaiting response. There was also feedback from last year that the water filters do not fit in fridges or have problems fitting in sinks for refilling.

o   Renee:

§  REP: Tomorrow will be the first pilot study break for the Sustainability REP. The program will involve teaching freshmen about recycling in zee groups with the recycling game and general information.

o   Aimee:

§  Reunions Foods: Met with Sue and Stu of Dining Services. [Update: They stated that a lot of food is recycled via pig buckets and reused via donation to soup kitchens. They stated that extending pig buckets to every tent location is not feasible because the buckets become very heavy and may pose a danger to student workers.] Instead, they stated that Eco-Reps can monitor food recycling in specific reunions tent and they plan to expand pig buckets to tent locations close to residential dining halls for easier transport. Eco-Reps can also encourage student managers to decrease opening of new food trays and combine lines when the meal is about to close. Furthermore, they offered the use of their scales at docking areas to weigh food buckets for obtaining statistics.

§  Reunions misc.: Sue and Stu also talked about other roles to take on during Reunions. One major event would be recycling during Class Day, during which some 5000 people get boxed lunches with cardboard box and bottled water. We can work on recycling the boxes and bottles in bright neon T shirts. May also be very helpful to have a collection point for pieces/parts of the lunches that people may not want and would otherwise throw away (e.g. apples, bags of chips, cookies, cheese, etc.).

o   Bing:

§  Princeton Preview Activites Fair: The second weekend would be this upcoming Friday from 4-6:30 in the Dillon Gym. Thanks to Jen, Stephanie, and Chrissy for signing up. Feel free to attend and table!

§  Earthday: April 22nd from 4:30-7:30 at Frist South Lawn. We would be tabling and playing the recycling game. If we can get an electric outlet, we would also display the light-bulb meter. Stephanie, Jen, and Leo have signed up to table.

§  Bike Donations: A lot of bikes are left out in the weather over the summer and have to be removed by Public Safety. There was a meeting last Friday to attempt to get one of the following done: a) have the students place the bikes in storage, b) have the students bring the bikes home c) have the students donate the bikes. In order to help out with c), we will be hosting a few bike collection sessions. There will also be sessions for the faculty if they or their children have used bikes that they wish to donate. [Update: Sorry about my confusing the times. The sessions for student bike collection will actually take place during exam period, not reading period. The dates set for the collection are: May 14th (Fri.), May 19th (Wed.), and May 21st (Fri.) from 1-5pm. Please email if you can help out.]

§  T-shirt design: Karen designed a wonderful bright neon green t-shirt for Reunions.

§  Outdoor Action Sustainability: Bing met with Rick Curtis on Monday to discuss the specifics of the program. He was very specific about what he needs from Eco-Reps. OA comes back from their trip with a lot of garbage, plant based refuse, cans and plastic bottles, and left over foods; each of them can be placed in separate bins and redirected to where they can be properly disposed. He is looking for people to come back early so that Eco-Reps can be the leaders in directing where the garbage and recyclables can go. In return for helping, Eco-Reps would get the chance to advertise to the incoming freshmen and share eco-friendly messages as well as to recruit.

§  Green Tour: The email was sent out about Green Tours. Please sign up if you can help with the Greening Tours.

§  Better World Books: BWB actually received the 2009 WasteWise Gold Award for Paper Reduction by the EPA. We were a little skeptical last year because they are a for-profit company, but they are doing quite a bit for the environment. However, shipping the books to them is heavy and would not be environmentally friendly. This year, we are proposing to do something similar to what we have done last year: that is, we will be collecting the books and attempting to distribute them for reuse locally and the leftover books can then be shipped to BWB. After discussion, we decided that we should charge some price for the books as to prevent people who do not need the books from taking them. Textbooks and other books should also be separated at collection to reduce labor needed at organizing the books. Perhaps two bins would be necessary for book collection.

§  Update: Communiversity is this Saturday, April 24th. We will be tabling with the Office of Sustainability and other Greening Groups on campus. If anyone is available to help table, please email.

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