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Green Team Encourages Campus to Better Manage Waste Sustainability

Olivia DrakeJanuary 19, 20164min
The Green Team, January 2016.

Wesleyan’s Green Team, currently comprised of six administrative assistants, is researching, communicating and implementing effective strategies that increase sustainability within their own departments and the university.

They’re currently focusing their efforts on managing waste sustainability, making sustainable purchases, reducing energy in their departments, encouraging colleagues and working to shift the culture of their areas to be sustainable.

Current Green Team members, pictured here holding their reusable mugs, include, from left, Roslyn Carrier-Brault, Chemistry Department; Dawn Alger, Theater Department; Valerie Marinelli, College of the Environment; Liz Tinker, English Department; Anika Dane, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department; and Blanche Meslin, Biology Department.
Current Green Team members, pictured here holding their reusable mugs, include, from left, Roslyn Carrier-Brault, Chemistry Department; Dawn Alger, Theater Department; Valerie Marinelli, College of the Environment; Liz Tinker, English Department; Anika Dane, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department; and Blanche Meslin, Biology Department.
Blanche Meslin, administrative assistant in the Biology Department, created a portable trash container for her desk. During an administrative assistants meeting on Jan. 14, the Green Team members encouraged their colleagues to replace individual garbage containers with portable desk models. Meslin created the garbage container with a used coffee can. "If you have some garbage, you collect it in this small container and at the end of the workday, you carry it to one communal trash can that is shared by your entire office or department. But, really, it takes me several days to fill this little can up," Meslin said. “It makes you more aware of what should go into the recycle bin and reduces the amount of plastic garbage bags used."
Blanche Meslin, administrative assistant in the Biology Department, created a portable trash container for her desk. During an Academic Administrative Assistants meeting on Jan. 14, the Green Team members encouraged their colleagues to replace individual garbage containers with portable desk models. Meslin created the garbage container with a used coffee can.
“Since I removed my garbage can, I have been using this desktop can for my trash. I discard the contents at the end of the day into a larger communal bin,” Meslin said. “It makes you more aware of what should go into the recycle bin and reduces the amount of plastic garbage bags used.”

The Green Team is always open to new members. For more information on the Green Team, e-mail Anika Dane or Blanche Meslin. Also, visit the Green Team’s Green Tips page for ideas on how to make your office more sustainable!

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