The average student does not associate a red Solo cup with much more than drinking. The year’s first ever Georgetown Day cup seeks to change that. It’s time to make recycling fun.

The Georgetown University Student Association senate has partnered with Students of Georgetown, Inc., and Georgetown Day Planning Committee to organize an event that incentivizes students to recycle their party waste for cash. Natural Lite cans? Recyclable. Solo cups? Recyclable.

The Georgetown Day cup is designed to clean up the Georgetown campus after the extravaganza that is Georgetown Day, while establishing a mentality of recycling on campus. Most party waste is recyclable, yet many students are not aware of this.

With the Georgetown Day cup, groups and individuals on campus will receive prizes if they are among the top recyclers of red Solo cups and aluminum cans

The GUSA Senate’s Subcommittee on Sustainability, part of the Student Life Committee, spearheaded the planning process of the event as part of an initiative to educate the student body about recycling in a fun, engaging and humorous way.

During this school year, the subcommittee worked on setting up TerraCycle bins (bins for non-traditional recyclable items, like Brita filters) in all of the freshman dorms and improved signage on trashcans through a behavioral study to encourage recycling.
The TerraCycle initiative has been mainly focused on freshmen, as the focus of the initiative is to incorporate TerraCycle into the lives of Georgetown students new to the Hilltop.
In other words, TerraCycle has so far been geared more toward the Class of 2018 and beyond, or otherwise the future of Georgetown, as the goal is to incorporate recycling into the lives of Georgetown students as soon as they arrive on the Hilltop.

The Subcommittee on Sustainability has also focused on sustainability education, and has hung up posters highlighting different things most students don’t realize are recyclable.

Now, the Sustainability Subcommittee is focused on the Georgetown Day cup – an initiative relative to all Georgetown students. In partnering with The Corp, GUSA has bridged the gap between two very present campus organizations to organize an event open to all Georgetown University undergrads.

For student groups that did not get all the money they requested this year from GUSA, this initiative serves as a means to attain extra funding in an easy and socially responsible manner.

The Georgetown Day cup serves as an opportunity for various student leaders across campus to show that recycling is a priority. This one day event can serve as a reminder to students that most party materials are in fact recyclable, which will hopefully lead to changes in how students view recycling here on campus.

The student organization or group of individuals that bring in the most empty red Solo cups and aluminum cans to one of three collection centers April 26, the day after Georgetown Day, will be awarded 300 dollars.

The second-place group will receive $100. The event will be open to individual participants as well, so the individual who collects the most Solo cups and aluminum will receive $50.

For the event, GUSA has also partnered up with PNC Bank. PNC Bank will be providing free water bottles to the first 200 people to visit the three waste collection centers on the day of the event.

Sustainability isn’t the flashiest subject, which makes it a difficult subject to get students to prioritize. The Georgetown Day Cup seeks to highlight the connection between college partying and recycling.

Recycling after a party is easy to do, as most alcohol containers are recyclable, yet students are not aware of this fact. All interested students and student groups can take part in the event.

Enushe Khan is a sophomore in the McDonough School of Business and chair of the Georgetown University Student Association Senate Student Life Committee. Theo Montgomery is a freshman in the School of Foreign Serivce and chair of the GUSA Senate Subcommittee on Sustainability.