Loyola Calls for Sustainable Action During Annual Waste Week

Loyola’s Waste Week, hosted by the Office of Sustainability and various student organizations, intended to shift student focus toward environmental topics through interactive events around campus Feb. 10-14. 

Sustainability Manager Megan Conway, who oversees the university’s waste reduction initiatives, operated Waste Week along with the Office of Sustainability. She said the university has worked consistently to reduce waste production on campus.

Being one of the many initiatives Loyola has to offer on sustainability which are accessible for students to partake in, Conway said Waste Week was another step forward in fulfilling the university’s mission to bring in less material and up sustainability.  

“Loyola has worked for years to reduce the amount of waste that we’re sending to landfills through source reduction, recycling,” Conway said. “We want to get people engaged and make people aware of the wide variety of programs that we have available in this way.”

The week started off with the “Trashy Valentines” event hosted by the Restoration Club Feb. 10, where participants were invited to reuse their own collected waste materials to make paper Valentine’s Day cards. 

Second-year Nat Kath and third-year Jack Herwig, both environmental science majors and co-presidents of Restoration club, led the collaborative event with the Office of Sustainability.

Students used markers, construction paper and recycled materials like old newspapers and cardboard from soda can containers for their cards. Meanwhile, Kath and Herwig discussed the Office of Sustainability’s programs and initiatives, which have been implemented throughout campus.

One was Compost Bucket Program — which allows for weekly drop-off food waste to be turned into compost — and Wipe Out Waste — which ensures every compost from every dining hall is turned into farm fertilizer. Paper towel composting, another program they presented, allows for offices, residence hall restrooms and student organization sponsors to reduce waste by setting up paper towel composting bins in their common areas.

Both Kath and Herwig said they hoped students would leave the event with a broader perspective on reusing items they’ve discarded carelessly, bringing more meaning to objects typically seen as trash.

“Things don’t just die after one use, they can still make something,” Herwig said.

In their presentation, the Office of Sustainability referred to a 2024 waste audit, which revealed only 21.32% of landfill materials at Loyola truly belonged in landfills and 44% of waste placed in recycling bins wasn’t recyclable.

With these findings the university created the Zero Waste and Sustainable Materials Management Plan. The Restoration Club said the initiatives outlined in the plan are designed to raise student awareness of waste management programs. 

“One of the main premises we built off of was taking care of the planet and making sure that we’re doing our part as humans to eradicate the damage that we’ve done in the past,” Kath said.

Following a presentation on Loyola’s current waste reduction efforts was a screening of “Boxtrolls,” a movie about a young scrap collector, Feb. 11 at the Damen Cinema. A game of Trashketball was held in Arrupe College Feb. 11, which gave students the opportunity to win prizes for their ability to discard items in the appropriate waste bin.

For those who were interested in learning more about global waste reduction and its influence from a commercial perspective, Net Impact, which hosts educational events that connect students to business professionals and social environmental movements, invited School of Environmental Sustainability Assistant Professor Sarah Ku to discuss on circular economy. 

The three-hour-long course held in the Damen Den introduced the business model which reduces consumption of raw materials during production, emphasizing the refurbishment of all materials in multiple ways that still benefit a business. 

By bridging the Quinlan School of Business and the SES, Net Impact said they sought to expand students’ knowledge of the intersection between waste reduction business’ economic growth. 

Aana Shenai, second-year environmental science major and president of the 2024 Net Impact chapter, said the crash course was relevant and valuable for both business and environmental science students. 

“We want to provide this educational event to make it more accessible to people so that they can take those courses on the buzz word topic which is not well understood,” Shenai said.

Shenai said although Loyola offers Intro to Circulatory Economy and Sustainable Business Design as courses, she believes circular economy should be more accessible for all students. In this way, all students can grow their interests in the fields of business and sustainability while providing a space for them to interact with an experienced researcher on the topic. 

Queer ecology was the topic of discussion for SES’s monthly seminar Feb. 12.The seminar examined the human relationship with nature from a queer perspective. It also explored humanity’s history with the natural world through the multispecies entanglement concept which demonstrates how animals and humans co-exist. 

Waste Week concluded Feb. 13, with the Student Environmental Alliance’s Why Waste campaign which provided mending tools like sewing kits and a variety of patches for students to renew old and ripped clothes. 

SEA raised awareness of the destructive methods of the fast fashion industry, encouraging students to invest in what they already own, restoring clothes without leaving negative social or environmental footprints.

Niahm Nugent, a second-year environmental studies major and Why Waste co-chair, said the event highlighted consumerism and how difficult it can be to avoid, as well as how students can most benefit from their own consumption. 

“We taught them what they can do as consumers to work around big brands that are making it so hard to be sustainable nowadays,” Nugent said.

While students learned how to limit their participation in the unethical approaches of production used by big industries, they also expanded their creativity. Colorful patches lined participants’ jeans and shirts, restore their clothes in both durability and aesthetic.

Lily Cashman, a first-year environmental policy major, said the event helped her reconnect with her younger self’s love for embroidery and it felt exciting to restore her clothes. 

“I worked on adding a sunflower to my tank top so it’s such a fun and creative outlet to rework clothing that I haven’t worn in a while,” Cashman said.

The events, designed to raise awareness and encourage action, emphasized the importance of student involvement in sustainability initiatives. Beyond Waste Week, continued participation in the active reduction of waste is encouraged. 

“We are always working to reduce the amount of waste that we’re generating on our campuses, but we’d love to have more participants in programs to raise awareness on the impact we can have,” Conway said.

Editor’s note: Lily Cashman has previously contributed to The Phoenix as a writer.