How Sustainable is UTRGV?

EDINBURG – At UTRGV when you throw a water bottle into a recycling container, do you wonder where it actually ends up?

We visited the Office of Sustainability to find out exactly what the office does for the campus.

“We have some new electric golf carts coming to school that help students get around a little more sustainably, we also have more bicycle racks and repair stations because there’s always more sustainable transportation happening on campus, and at the dining hall there’s these new reusable to-go containers that are hard plastic so you can go pick up your food, bring it back when its empty. You don’t even have to wash it. Just bring it back and you can get a new one and you don’t have to use any styrofoam or any of that,” said Graduate Assistant for Office of Sustainability Karen Villarreal.

Dr. Racelis, a professor known for his outstanding commitment to bring sustainable initiatives on campus like the green house and the certified organic garden, took time to  share his insight on what it takes to create a sustainable campus.

“If you imagine the students on slow moving machine and the students are really the passengers right and you guys  are paying passengers so you guys can decide say hey look we would like for the university to go this way. It may take a little political but I think there’s some room for that. That’s just some examples, but what it really takes is action. I mean students everywhere like your age are facing some sort of real dire predictions right. So what it needs is people to just stop talking about doing stuff and just doing it,” said Racelis.

For more ways to be involved in an active club, to help combat climate change, and bring sustainability to campus, contact the Environmental Awareness Club.

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