MSU alumni Megan Bocks and Mikayla Mihm went to the event to find ways to get involved with sustainability. Mihm mentioned how she followed the Recycling Center and Surplus Store on Instagram to stay up to date with their events. Bocks said she was most excited about the plant cutting that the event offered and wants to learn more about how to stay sustainable. 

Additional activities in the event included up-cycled crafts, seed bomb making, collage art, recycle center tours and much more. 

The recycling center offered tours for attendees to promote awareness of MSU recycling and its impact on the East Lansing community. Marty Salazar, driver and hauler for MSU recycling, directed a number of the tours. He presented the recycling and garbage trucks, and explained the difference between their front load garbage truck and their roll off truck. Salazar also explained the different duties of the recycling department and provided information for community members. 

"I hope that people get interested in this stuff and help our environment with putting the right materials and the right containers," Salazar said. "I also want to thank (community members) for recycling and doing the right things with the materials, and I hope everybody keeps us green." 

Student organizations, such as Medicraft, Bailey Scholars, Yarn Circle, Pollinators United Sustainability Hub (PUSH) and Impact89FM were in attendance. Each organization had interactive stations to promote their mission to the community. 

Environmental studies and sustainability senior Mel Miles and junior Amelia Beesley were representatives of PUSH at Earth Bash.

"Our mission is to plant native species, pollinators gardens around campus and have them be student-led initiatives and projects to go through the whole process of planning and designing the project, then doing a volunteer event," Miles said.

Beesley expressed her happiness with being able to engage with the community while bringing awareness to the importance of native plans and how they make local ecosystems resilient.

Katie Deska, surplus store and recycling center education and upcycle coordinator, was one of the organizers of the event. She mentioned how the event was aimed to showcase the center's operations, including composting, recycling and upcycling initiatives.

"Hopefully, people get a sense that there's a lot of different angles to what it means to manage waste as a resource in different ways," Deska said. 

Despite the event being relatively new, the organization has solid hopes for their future and the future of MSU sustainability. Deska hopes to see increased reuse and conscious spending on campus, with a focus on reducing waste and promotion of second-hand shopping.

"I would like to see just more reuse and/or more kind of conscious choices around where we spend our money and the the ways that we could just start with reduce to begin with," Deska said.