The vacuum cord that won鈥檛 retract. The leaf blower with the broken on switch. The socks with a hole in the heel. We鈥檝e all been there: repair it, or toss it? The Oregon State University Waste Watchers is hoping you鈥檒l go with the first option. 鈥淲e want to foster a culture of DIY, not just use and discard,鈥� said Kyle Reed, the group鈥檚 student outreach assistant.
Reed works for OSU Campus Recycling and Surplus Property, which co-sponsors the Waste Watchers student group with Student Sustainability Initiative. Last fall, Reed gave a demonstration of how to make compost using a worm bin at the Waste Watcher鈥檚 Repair Fair, where volunteers fix those broken vacuums and leaf blowers for free.
The Waste Watchers also holds outreach events and runs marketing campaigns to promote recycling across campus, including the annual 鈥渞ecycle mania鈥� competition, in which OSU competes with the University of Oregon for the most pounds of recycling and compost.
This year鈥檚 recycle mania will be held in February, and at the Waste Watchers鈥� final 2016 meeting, group members kicked around ideas for the sculpture they would make out of recycled materials.
They liked the idea of making furniture and a TV鈥斺�淚t鈥檚 interactive! People could sit in it! You could take pictures in it!鈥濃�攑lus, they decide, it鈥檚 a lot easier to make a sofa than a beaver. So they ran with it, and soon had slogan ideas: 鈥淕et tuned in for recycling,鈥� 鈥淲hat鈥檚 your recycling frequency,鈥� and 鈥淭rash talk here.鈥�
To Andrea Norris, the marketing and development coordinator for OSU Campus Recycling and Surplus Property and the only non-student regularly involved with the group, this kind of idea generation is one of the Waste Watchers most important jobs as the department鈥檚 de facto outreach arm. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e the think tank,鈥� Norris said. 鈥淭heir ideas and their brainstorming are very valuable to us, because they鈥檙e very in touch with the student population.鈥�
For the students, the group provides an opportunity to see their ideas turned into reality. Callie Limbaugh, the group鈥檚 recruitment chair, turned a tip about how to repair an underwire bra into a successful repair fair demonstration. 鈥淭o see an idea that you have really do something is really important,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his was a real sense of reward.鈥�
Others are drawn to the group by their personal commitment to the environment. Amy Salisbury, a junior civil engineering major, has been involved in the group since she was a freshman. 鈥淥ur group is small, but it makes me feel like I can make an impact,鈥� she said. 鈥淓verybody has their fight, and sustainability is the fight I鈥檝e picked.鈥�
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