The University of Mississippi is hosting its first Earth Month celebration in April.
Starting in 2009, Green Week is a partnership between UM’s Office of Sustainability and the Oxford Office of Sustainability. Since then, they have partnered with community and campus organizations to promote sustainability.
“By expanding (Green Week) to the entire month, we could alleviate some of the pressure that we had before, performing all in one week. (It will also) give more time for people to actually make sustainable action throughout the month,” Kathryn Kidd, project manager for the office of sustainability, said. “We’re hoping that with a whole month, we can really get some intentional changes happening.”
Today, the Egg Bowl Glass Recycling Drive will be held from 2-6 p.m. This year, UM and Mississippi State University will hold a glass recycling competition in partnership with Door2Door Recycling. People can donate their recycling in the Jackson Avenue Center’s parking lot.
“People can bring us any of their glass and we’ll recycle that with Door2Door. We’re going to choose the winner based on who donates the most glass,” freshman biology and anthropology major and Earth Month coordinator Hailey Smith said.
The Oxford Community Market will be on campus 10 a.m.-2 p.m. April 20 in the Galtney-Lott Plaza. The OXCM will promote local and sustainable food to students, faculty and staff.
“The Oxford Community Market is going to be coming to the UM campus. We’ll have a bunch of vendors set up with different products and produce,” Smith said. “Students, who might not get the chance to go to the Community Market as much, they’ll have the opportunity to shop around, connect with our community and also learn how shopping locally, which is a good resource and better for the environment compared to shopping (from) chain brands.”
The OXCM Low Carbon Shopping Night will be held at the Old Armory Pavillion 2-6 p.m. April 25.. Resources about the impact you make when you buy local produce will be provided by the office of sustainability.
“Students can take a trip to the Community Market and engage with our community again and try to make recipes with our locally sourced ingredients that are better for the environment,” Smith said.
Earth Month is a way for students to practice sustainability and encourage conscious behavior.
“College kids are in a very interesting period of our lives where we’re still trying to figure out where we fit into the world and what’s important to us. These events are a great opportunity to promote sustainability and encourage conscious behavior with our peers, as well as other members of our community,” Smith said.
Earth Month is also for bringing the community together.
“There’s two sides of the coin on Earth Month. We’re speaking to an audience of people that we’re trying to bring into sustainability and encourage sustainable action. Then there’s the other side, which is people like us who are in the field constantly.” Kidd said. “For us, Earth Month is really important because climate change and things like that can be really overwhelming. I think that Earth Month for people that are already in sustainability is a time to celebrate what is going right.”
