Agnes Scott College
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

During Recyclemania 2018, the Environmental Residents hosted a month-long Zero Waste Challenge to encourage our community to evaluate ways in which they can minimize their waste. Each day participants took on an additional challenge and had to continue that challenge throughout the month. Examples include: no straws, no Styrofoam, no fast food, no individually wrapped snacks, and no online shopping. Each Environmental Resident was responsible for posting about a different challenge on the Center for Sustainability’s social media platforms. During an exit survey of the ERs this year, 70% of them reported this campaign was the most successful event of the academic year.

During the 2016-2017 academic year, the college’s waste diversion rate took a hard hit, and the college’s Recyclemania results were low. A major priority of the ERs this academic year, was to provide outreach campaigns to increase waste diversion. Recyclemania 2018 proved successful for the college, with Agnes Scott finishing first in Georgia and 71st nationally. The Center for Sustainability credits these improvements from the previous year with the outreach campaigns of the Environmental Residents.

In fall 2016, the Agnes Scott Green Team launched a ‘Take Back the Tap’ campaign to reduce the use of single-use plastic bottles on campus. For an entire week, they hosted a series of programs in the Evans Dining Hall to raise awareness about the issues surrounding single-use plastic. Events included showing a student-produced video, which included an endorsement from the college’s president, as well as water taste test to see if our community could really tell the difference in the taste of tap water. Participants also received a coupon for a reusable water bottle at our bookstore.

As a result of this campaign, the Green team lobbied Agnes Scott Dining to stop providing single-use plastic bottles through catering orders. Now disposable bottles are only used on campus during two major outdoor events.