ASU celebrated Earth Day on Monday by promoting energy conservation and recycling.
ASU Recycling invited clubs and organizations including Sierra Club, Earth First, GREENPEACE, the Salt River Project, Arizona Public Service and Co-op America to display booths on Hayden Lawn and educate students on how they can help the environment.
While SRP displayed an electric car to promote alternative fuels, there were also displays of plastic, aluminum and paper to promote recycling. A cube of approximately 54,000 aluminum cans were compressed to show the effects of recycling. ASU Recycling handed out pencils and visors recycled from blue jeans and recycled sticky notes.
"We are trying to get people's attention and get them thinking about recycling," said Kerry Suson, office specialist for ASU Recycling, which started in 1991 and recycles 600 tons a year.
Club Green, an on-campus organization in the College of Architecture, had a booth on the lawn to promote environment-friendly furniture. According to industrial design graduate Sarah George, some factors considered in making earth-friendly furniture are materials and what is done with the furniture after its use.
George said she believes Earth Day events don't completely change the Earth but help people make small steps.
"It (the Earth Day event) doesn't make a total shift in the Earth but is a slow progression when people understand the effects of their actions," George said.
ASU Recycling coordinator Andrea Lee understands students are busy and saving the environment is not on the forefront of their minds.
"We hope to plant seeds in individuals' minds and to make a difference in the long run," Lee said.
Bioengineering sophomore Michael Fitch passed by the event and believes it's important to help the environment.
"I try to be conservative and do my part by recycling and reusing plastic," Fitch said. "I think this is more than the average person."
Reach the reporter at kristin.roberts@asu.edu.
