Introduction

Wesleyan Committee
Recycling
Aramark
Environmental Management

Middletown Committee
Trap Rock Ridge
Filthy Fiver
Other Campaigns

National Issues
Urban Sprawl
Global Warming

Pohnpei- Sawartik waterfall

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E3's Summary for Spring 2000

Introduction

     This is the E3 Spring 2000 semester recap. Enclosed you will find reports of everything that E3 did this semester, and what our plans are for the spring and beyond. We accomplished an amazing amount of stuff this semester, but all of the committees could still use more help. We'll be starting out fresh next semester, so if you stopped coming to meetings but think the stuff below is worthwhile, please come out to the first spring semester meeting and get involved!

Wesleyan Committee

Recycling
Accomplishments:
1. Placed bins in Clark dorm rooms and added them to "room furniture" on reslife room forms.
2. Dorm Stormed Clark to educate students about recycling.
3. Placed recycling bins in Butt B hallways.
4. Created a recycling web page and email address.
5. Put the work-study recycling position we created into action.
6. Developed an email list of all department administrative assistants so that they can be encouraged to purchase environmentally friendly products.
7. Dressed up as recyclables and "performed" in Mocon.
8. Attached labels to outdoor bins.
9. Created and distributed information sheets about what can be recycled to give to RAs for orientation.
10. Coordinated computer recycling in conjunction with ITS.
11. Designed a preliminary outdoor recycling bin.
12. Established plans for installing recycling bins in lowrise and highrise.

Goals for the Future:
1. Install outdoor recycling bins on campus.
2. Renovate Hewitt hallways to accommodate recycling bins and organize a system for emptying them.
3. Install paperboard recycling bins at lowrise/highrise and in-town.
4. Use the department email list and send out regular messages regarding recycling.
5. Restructure recycling in libraries and the Campus Center mailroom.
6. Place bins in every dorm room on campus.
7. Make Styrofoam and computer recycling more accessible.
8. Develop systems for emptying recycling bins in academic and administrative buildings.
9. Expand our web page.
10. Work in conjunction with the EMC to continually increase recycling education on campus.

Aramark/Campus Dining:
Many varied goals have been accomplished this semester. Regular meetings with Aramark staff have been successful in implementing changes in campus dining. Increased vegan options (have you looked at Weshop lately!), improved labelling, discounts and incentives for Tupperware and Mugs, taste test and promotion of vegan foods. The staff has been a great help and we will continue to collaborate with them next year, as part of EMC. Next fall, there will be tray collection racks to keep the real trays and recycle the disposable ones. We are also hoping to spread the tupperware trend, revise menus at the beginning of the year, and get aramark to order shade-grown coffee. We are also potentially attacking the environmental disaster that is WesWings, convincing them to purchase a dishwasher and real dishes.

Composting has been a huge success for this rot-loving committee. We have composting bins for more than 10 houses on campus and arranged for the compost to be taken to an organic farm at the end of the year. If you would like a bin next year for your house, low-rise, or in-town, please let us know! We want to spread the program and eventually integrate composting to a Wesleyan facility, completing the circle. Massive organizational work has been done to implement composting at Mocon. We have called dozens of organic farms, pressured Aramark, and even completed a full waste audit of the daily compostable wastes there (averaging 45 lbs a day!!) Currently, the waste is all being composted by the head chef, Jeff. He has helped educate all the employees about separating wastes and increased the amount that is collected. Next semester we aim to organize with other farms that can collect more of the waste (aiming to eventually compost all food wastes) through pressuring physical plant for money saved through composting as well as EMC accountability. Waste Nothing Day was held during Earth Week and got the word out. This is becoming a recognized event by the students, hopefully increasing participation and influencing daily habits. We aim to have it relatively early next fall in order to help the frosh form good habits. Contact ryan (rhuggins) with any input.

Environmental Management Committee:
This fledging group met in their 7 subcommittees and assessed what to do. In conjunction with meetings and cooperation with administrative representatives, each committee came up with goals for the now and the future. The accomplishments include waste nothing day, bin distribution to dorms, investigating facilities plans for the immediate renovations, and frosh education workshop. To see the goals, visit the website, from the new environmental link on the Wesleyan home page (it includes E3, EMC, and Recycling). Structure and expectations for the EMC in the future have been laid out in a constitution and Mission Statement. Next year, EMC will be combined with Wesleyan subcommittee of E3. This will create a more coordinated effort and increase the student participation and support. Some committees are in great need of help, such as grounds and hazardous wastes. Please give them your time and ideas and look to join our team in E3 next fall. Be watching for battery recycling and information about Long Lane planning in the near and sustained future. We've been looking for widespread student input in order to gear EMC actions to the most relevant issues. We compiled surveys with small returns this semester. Next fall, we will send the surveys to all students as well as to all administrators. This will help raise consciousness across campus. Contact us at EMC@wes... with any comments and questions

Middletown Committee

Trap Rock Ridge
"Basically, this was a bomber-ass campaign, which was run with tremendous amounts of organization as well as attention to detail. We found that the fruits of our preliminary research enabled us to garner community support and political backing." - Shane "IceMan" Feirstein After deciding upon traprock ridge preservation as an important and feasible semester project and an important issue for the city of Middletown, we began extensive research. Norm Zimmer, an amazing activist from Meriden who singlehandedly raised statewide support for traprock ridge preservation and basically worked really hard for a long time, was one of our initial contacts. He provided us with much background info and suggested further contact people. We also utilized the Connecticut Forest and Park Association (CFPA) office, which is just up Rt 66. Anne Colson is a nice woman who knows a lot and is really eager to help. We sat in on one of their trail preservation committee meetings, did a lot of research, and borrowed some books from the office. Note: the CFPA library is a great resource for info on CT environmental issues, USE IT. We found a joint EES-CSS thesis written a few years ago by Allyssa Lareau that dealt with the Lamentation Mountain tri-town project and more broadly with open space preservation. It was a great resource, with environmental and political analysis. We arranged a few meetings with Jim Sipperly, the Middletown Environmental Planner. He is a great person. He gave us a lot of background info on the legal history of what his office has tried to do in terms of legislation. He also told us that Wesleyan owns a rather large (700 acres) parcel of undeveloped land on the ridge. Also, he suggested that we focus on public outreach and education for the remainder of the semester. We wrote up a draft of a petition to be signed by Middletown residents and began work on an educational exhibit (science-fair style) to be installed at Russell Library. We met with the MAYOR (Dominique Thornton) who was really friendly and supportive. She also invited Jim Sipperly to the meeting, and the two of them talked about the difficulties of raising money to buy some of the land up on the ridge for preservation. They want to raise money for a land trust so that when the opportunity arises to buy an important parcel of land, they won't have to worry about raising the funds. The mayor also emphasized the importance of public education, and invited us to make a presentation at the televised town council meeting on May 15. We led a hike to Mount Higby on April 21st for Earthweek in the pouring rain. We are continuing to gather signatures on our petitions during the last few weeks of the school-year. We rock! Contacts: Jim Sipperly- Middletown Environmental Planner (a great guy and helpful resource) 344-3425 Ann Colson at Connecticut Forests and Parks Association 346-2372 (acolson_cfpa@yahoo.com) Norm Zimmer (Meriden firefighter and fighter of environmental destruction) 203-237-4886 Jay Mantie - CT Blue Trail Mattabesett trail maintenance crew & security officer at Wesleyan University- zamima@earthlink.net

Filthy Five
The campaign to clean up the power plants in Connecticut has acted in local education and in political action. Halloween door to door canvassing, collecting signatures through table petitioning which were published in the newspaper and delivered to Eileen Daly's desk, Telephone call-in to inform voters of the situation before the bill went to the energy and environmental committee of CT congress, attending energy committee hearings to show support, attending press conferences before Senatorial votes. All of this action has educated Middletown residents of the great need to pressure politicians to stop selling out to big power industries and help the people. It has been great network building and the struggle will continue in the future!

Other campaigns:
Kid's Carnival:
The Earth Day Children's Carnival was held April 30th. This event taught children about recycling and the importance of maintain Earth through fun puppets, music, marches, and recycling-art projects.

National Committee

Urban Sprawl
The Sprawl Subcommittee has been very much focused on the BIG PICTURE in its first semester of existence. E3's one and only grad student, our beloved Jason, fearlessly led the way as we imagined a world of sustainable development and lots of flowers. All told, we've come up with a mountain of ideas, did some exciting actions, and made great connections with Middletown. Much to build on next semester. Development: Jason met with the Harbor Park Commission, which deals with riverfront development in Middletown. learned about proposals for making the area more cozy and accessible. we took a walk down to the river and brainstormed ideas for short and long term improvements, including things E3 can do - clean up of the roads that lead to the river, plant flowers, help plan a River Day festival TO DO: stay in touch with Middletown planners and give input into the project. spruce up the damn river. much potential for a place to chill, but for now is pretty grungy. Transportation: Made bus schedules available in campus center, quickly taken TO DO: permanently post bus and train schedules, costs, and how-to info near ride board- peter pan/greyhound, CT transit, MAT, Metro North. do big campaigns before breaks so people know how to get home or to popular destinations (NYC/Boston) without driving or calling a taxi. Talk to CT department of transportation employee and wesleyan grad Nana danso (kdanso@wesleyan.edu) to work with the system to make it more accessible. Discussed getting a shuttle running from In-town to campus during class times to reduce driving. talked to whaley, pointed out that it was a more of a winter problem and that it would be pretty hard to get money for. made up a survey for in-town residents, i think we decided that it wasn't worth it. For earth week, we put fake tickets on cars on Monday, fining people for all the external costs of driving an automobile. dirty air makes us sad. Wednesday we put flyers on cars to advertise CAR OUT DAY on Thursday. we had a cute lil banner in the campus center with an SUV that would get pushed off a cliff if enough people committed to not driving. i think the banner was stolen before the SUV crashed into flames. we win anyway. TO DO: reduce driving on campus. there must be a way.

to go back home:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/e3