October is Campus Sustainability Month, and is a time for college campuses across the globe to celebrate making strides in protecting natural resources, conserving ecosystems and reducing pollution.
At UWM, there is much to celebrate, and the Office of Sustainability shares four ways you can get involved:
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- Celebrate by attending Campus Sustainability Week, Oct. 13-17, with events held daily including volunteer seed harvesting, a climate action workshop and UWM’s signature Surplus Pop-up Shop. Find events details on the Sustainability website.
- Sign up for a free energy kit. UW-Milwaukee is currently in the lead for the statewide Focus on Energy Higher Education Kit Challenge, and we need your help to save more energy and secure the win for UWM! Follow the directions online to register for your kit before Oct. 31.
- Learn about the Office of Sustainability’s new pilot plastic film recycling program by watching this new video. While plastic bags and other plastic film (such as plastic mailers or plastic cling wrap) cannot go into the blue recycling bins on campus, you can drop off your plastic bags at specialty locations. Find a bin at all University Housing locations and outside room 116 in the Architecture & Urban Planning Building, with more locations coming this fall. Plastic film from this program is sold to a specialty recycler and is turned into products such as outdoor furniture, decking and fencing. This program is projected to keep over 10,000 pounds of plastic film out of the landfill this year.
- Register for Panther Pails. Panther Pails is UWM’s signature “opt-in” composting program. By signing up for the program, you can pick up your first 1-gallon collection pail and start composting. The Panther Pails program uses an easy “drop and swap” method, whereby Panther Pailers can drop off their full compost pail and pick up a fresh, clean pail at the campus Hoop House. Compost generated from this program is used on campus gardens each spring. The Office of Sustainability recently received a City of Milwaukee FEED MKE grant to support the expansion of onsite composting at UWM.
Any questions about Campus Sustainability Month or these programs? Please contact the Office of Sustainability staff at ask-sustainability@uwm.edu.
