OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi’s Office of Sustainability is seeking faculty, staff and community member volunteers to help sort recyclables collected from this year’s Egg Bowl as part of the Green Grove Gameday Recycling Program.
“Sorts-Giving” will take place at the Oxford Recycling Center from 1 to 3 p.m. Nov. 26. To sign up to volunteer, click here.
“Sorting recycling is a direct way to impact sustainability on campus,” said Lindsey Abernathy, associate director of the Office of Sustainability. “Student interns and volunteers work incredibly hard throughout the football season to enable tailgaters to recycle, so this is an opportunity to give those students a break before finals week and also show our support of the recycling program.”
Sorting game day recyclables is a component of the university’s Green Grove Gameday Recycling Program, which is operated by student interns in the Office of Sustainability with the help of student volunteers each semester. Besides passing out recycling bags and speaking with tailgaters on game day, volunteers gather each Monday after home football games to sort materials by hand.
All “Sorts-Giving” volunteers earn a free Green Grove T-shirt made from recycled plastic bottles and recycled cotton. Participants in recycling trivia also have opportunities to win other sustainability-related prizes such as reusable bags, water bottles and fork-and-spoon sets.
So far this semester, 175 student volunteers have recycled more than 2.5 tons of materials that would otherwise be sent to landfill.
The Green Grove program was established in 2008 as a partnership among the Office of Sustainability, Department of Landscape Services and the city of Oxford’s recycling department. Through Green Grove, tailgaters can recycle plastic bottles, aluminum cans and Solo cups on game days.
The Office of Sustainability ships Solo cups to TerraCycle for recycling, while the other items are processed through the Oxford Recycling Center.
For more information on “Sorts-Giving” or the Office of Sustainability, email green@olemiss.edu or visit https://sustain.olemiss.edu/.