Helping students learn more about sustainability while still being a part of the fun, The MSU Office of Sustainability invited attendees to partake in MSU trivia and give feedback on sustainability at MSU. The MSU Museum provided used materials to show the elements that go into making a cellphone, encouraging conversations about sustainability and mining. 

"Today is sort of like an open house style event where we invite people to come in and we've set up different activities that sort of introduce them to the different pieces of our mission," Surplus Store and Recycling Center Education Coordinator Katie Deska Radigan said. "We didn't do it last year, so it’s nice to have it back this year. We lucked out having amazing weather and got to do it outside of the recycling center, which is really just a fun vibe. The event has kind of grown a little bit. We’ve brought in some more partners who are doing activities."

The festival was open to the public and it drew in community members as well as just students, some even bringing their children. 

"It’s great to do an activity where the public is welcome too since so many of them in the school year are for students because they always like coming out and seeing what we do," said Deska Radigan. "A lot of them recycle at the drop off center and shop in the store, Spartans themselves."

The Recycling Center’s tech takedown station featured equipment that was donated to the Surplus Store such as computers, hard drives and speakers. Attendees were able to gently take apart these pieces to see how the items were made, what goes into them and see potential for upcycling the pieces in the equipment. 

"There's a lot of reusable or recyclable materials inside," IT sales consultant at the MSU Surplus Store David Radigan said. "For instance, in a hard drive, there are platters that are really, really shiny. You can use them as mirrors, and there are some really powerful rare earth magnets as well, that you can use to do anything you do with magnets."

There was also the opportunity to upcycle at Spartan Upcycle’s booth which brought a variety of household items for reuse in crafts, such as making masquerade masks out of file folders and ghost figurines out of egg cartons.

"It’s always really awesome to see if you just put the supplies out, people will come up with their own thing," Deska Radigan said. "It’s good to have a starting point [and] to have it all sitting there, not have to think too hard, not have to pay for it, not have to make a mess at home and clean it up."

Student attendee psychology sophomore Maggie Petersen had the idea for the ghosts made out of egg cartons craft at the upcycle booth. 

"I've been going to the Upcycle Fridays here and we were going through Pinterest and helping [the organizer] decide on some crafts," Petersen said. "I'm really happy with everyone who showed up. Upcycle Fridays are fun, but it's definitely a smaller group. It's nice to see community members and students, so that's been the best part."

Next up for sustainability month, Spartan Upcycle will be hosting a pumpkin seed roast, utilizing seeds from Saturday’s pumpkin carving event, on Thursday Oct. 9 from 7 to 10 p.m. in McDonel Hall’s basement community kitchen. 

"We’re basically gonna do the old tradition that many of us did growing up And introduce some people who have never done it before to another way to kind of extend your Halloween/fall fun and just hang out, do some crafting there and eat some tasty seeds," Deska Radigan said.

The Office of Sustainability will host a campus sustainability resource fair on Oct. 16 with crafts, campus departments, student organizations and an opportunity for students to learn how to get more involved with sustainability at MSU.