Participants and organizers at the Rubbish Rumble event discuss the competition, the planning behind it and the potential benefits that come with reusing trash to make useful products.
On Tuesday, about 20 mentors and residents of Hubbard Hall competed to create functional objects using recycled household items that otherwise would be thrown away.
“It’s an opportunity to get students to think about how much we waste,” said Dana Smith, a marketing junior and mentor for Hubbard Hall. “We want them to think creatively, but also environmentally friendly.”
Smith said all the mentors of the first through sixth floors of Hubbard came together and combined forces to create the event. Smith used an old olive jar and newspapers to make a vase.
“This is a program that sheds a light on being environmentally responsible and encourages creativeness in our residents,” she said. “It helps teach residents how much we could use our household items for different things.”
Smith said the idea came from a member of the maintenance staff — service worker Sean Barton — who was invited to judge the event. The mentors’ idea came from Barton’s endeavor to make a Spartan suit of armor out of recycled material.
“(Barton) is very environmentally aware,” she said. “We saw how creative he was, and thought we could do the same.”
Residents were able to create something either as an individual, or in a team, said human biology sophomore Roshan Jain, a mentor for Hubbard Hall.
Projects were judged in both short- and long-term categories: The short term were created in 20-minute blocks of time and include themes such as fashion and nouns. The long-term contestants had at least two weeks prior to Tuesday’s event to brainstorm and create their object.
The objects then were judged based on creativity, purpose, school spirit and appeal, said Diane Barker, assistant director of Campus Living Services for sustainability, who also was invited to judge the event.
One team, consisting of mentors human biology sophomore Jack Densmore, social relations and policy junior Paris Wilson and resident and mechanical engineering freshman Kyle Griffiths made a water bottle chandelier wrapped with blue string lights. Densmore said he intends to use the finished chandelier to light his dorm room’s bathroom.
“I learned you can do a lot with a water bottle,” Griffiths said. “It turned out a lot better than I had thought, especially since we made it out of something thought to be useless.”
The main idea of the event was to promote environmental consciousness, Jain said.
“We have a lot of recycling bins around campus,” he said. “With the end of the year coming up, we’d really like students to recycle the things they’re not going to take home.”
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