Greek Life will have its first ever zero-waste philanthropy event Friday at the Delta Delta Delta house.
DHOP, an all-you-can-eat pancakes event with proceeds going to St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital, will be composting and recycling all the materials used to ensure there is zero waste.
Tri Delta, a green sorority with recycle bins in its house, will be adding two additional bins for the event, courtesy of Compost Cats.
“One of the things about having an event this big is that there is so much trash,” said Claire Rudder, president of Tri Delta. “By having a zero-waste event, it makes a big impact. A ton of stuff would have been going in a landfill and when that stuff can be used for composting, [it’s good]. That stuff can be used for the school’s compost and used to help grow crops locally.”
There is no additional cost for buying recyclable materials instead of Styrofoam plates and cups or non-recyclable silverware, Rudder said. The pancake batter the sorority is using is compostable too, she added.
Tucson isn’t able to recycle the Capri Suns that Tri Delta will be using as beverages; however, TerraCycle.net will pay for the shipping of the Capri Suns so they can be recycled. For every unit recycled, Tri Delta will receive one to two cents that it can donate to its charity, St. Jude’s, explained Nicholas Rossi, project coordinator for Students for Sustainability.
Associated Students of the University of Arizona Senator Jake Barman, whose platform is sustainability, described this as a big step for Greek Life.
“It’s really exciting because we’re trying to get each greek house to be going this way,” Barman said. “Because this is our first event, it’s a big deal. It’s a huge push forward because it’s zero-waste — that’s incredible. It’s going to be a big step and it’s really going to set that kind of platform. We’re hoping that each sorority and fraternity from here on out can use this and see, ‘Oh, they did this first. Alright, we have to start doing that.’”
The initiative began with Rossi, who is a kitchen assistant at the Tri Delta sorority house.
“I presented the idea to them and the philanthropy chair jumped on board and was all for it,” Rossi said.
A couple of Tri Delta members are interns for Students for Sustainability, too, Rudder added.
Extra training was necessary for this event, including an explanation of what can go in the compost bin and what gets recycled, and a few students from Students from Sustainability will monitor the event to ensure everything is in the right place, Rossi said.
Tri Delta members said they hope to see a lot of students at the event.
“We’re really excited about it,” Rudder said. “We can’t wait to see how it goes.”
