Tridelts share green message with Greek community

Delta Delta Delta has decided to share their go green experience and enthusiasm with other members of the UW Greek community by creating the week-long “Greeks Go Green” event. Although the event is still in the planning stage, the idea is to create different events that will be held each day of the week, with a specific focus on improving the environment.

“Greeks Go Green” will kick-off on a Monday with a community block party, which will raise awareness of the event and issues that the week will focus on such as recycling, sustainable practices and conservation.

Going green means getting dirty

This Saturday, Delta Delta Delta members will put on a pair of sweatpants and roll up their sleeves to complete a day of volunteering with the “Clean and Green Seattle” organization.
According to the City of Seattle Web site, “Clean and Green Seattle” bring people together to make Seattle a brighter and cleaner place to live. The goal of the project is connect people with their city’s departments, non-profit organizations and private enterprises to make Seattle a more enjoyable place for everyone.

A change in the water

Thanks to Tridelta’s environmentally conscious member development chair, Susan Daaga, Theta Alpha has joined the UW’s Greener Greeks project.

The Greener Greeks project was created to educate students about energy and water efficiency and creates ways to further seek environmentally friendly change, a UW Daily article by Edwin Ortiz explained.

Shedding light on energy-efficient options

Tuesday I came home and crawled into my bed to read my texts. I turned on my bedside light, expecting a nice, soft glow, but was shocked when a bright, white light blinded me! After I recovered from my blindness, I remembered that Tridelta was making moves in our attempt to go green. While I was in class that day, Tridelta’s handyman changed out all of the light bulbs in the house for more energy and cost-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Denim: Today’s hottest fashion, tomorrow’s home insulation

My sorority sisters may not be the most environmentally aware group of girls, but they are highly educated in fashion and clothes. For instance, I think it is fair to estimate that the total value of clothes within our sorority totals well-over several thousand dollars.

Theta Alpha has decided to utilize our clothing knowledge and expansive wardrobes to make the next step in our green movement. We have chosen to round up our old jeans and denim products and participate in the 2008 UW Public Relations Student Society of America’s (PRSSA) “Cotton: From Blue to Green” Denim Drive.

Theta Alpha enters recycling rehab

This past Monday Theta Alpha installed recycling bins throughout the house. The goal was to throw away all of our paper, cans and plastics into the correct receptacle, rather than throwing everything in one big, messy trash can. Unfortunately, I seemed to over estimate the level of environmental awareness throughout the house.

There are currently 99 young women living in Theta Alpha; however, I believe there are a minimum of 15 people who correctly understand the term “recycling.” It’s hard to say if this lack of knowledge is related to a lack of environmental education, or simply the inability to walk three more steps to the recycling bin.

First Mission: Recycling

For as long as I can remember I have been told to recycle whenever it is possible. In grade school our teachers used to let us go to recess early if we picked up paper off the ground and put it in the recycle, and in high school if our teachers caught us throwing paper in the garbage we were given detention. My hyper-environmentally-aware mother also had recycling bins for each different kind of reusable material in our home.

When I entered college and I moved into the Theta Alpha chapter of Delta Delta Delta, I noticed that there was not one single recycling bin in the entire house. While this fact initially surprised me, I didn’t dwell on it; however, the idea of zero recycling bins did not sit well with some of my other eco-friendly sisters who began a strategic campaign to implement more green practices in our house.

“We already have garbage cans. I don’t see why we need recycling cans too,” stated Sandy “Mizzay” Anderson, the house mother of Theta Alpha who is responsible for the physical structure and functions of the sorority. “You girls can’t even throw regular trash in the garbage can, how will you decide what to put in the recycling bin?”