During the football game on Saturday, students in the Florida A&M University Green Coalition along with the Caribbean Students Association and volunteers teamed up for the Rattler Recycling Initiative and collected cans and plastic bottles.
Ryan Mitchell, environmental specialist for FAMU, said the goal was to recycle more than 1,000 pounds this year.
Students walked through the stands every half an hour and collected recycling cans through out the stadium.
Students at FAMU are supporting the “Go Green” movement around campus. The Green Coalition is a non-governmental advocacy organization and is dedicated to improving public health standards and protecting the environment.
CJ Gassam, 18, architecture student from Chesapeake, Va., and president of the Green Coalition has been working to get others involved in the organization.
“I do it because I notice that you should be a leader, and I believe we can do more than we are doing now for environmental causes,” Gassam said.
The mission of the FAMU Green Coalition is to get involved with the FAMU campus to inform the students of environmental issues. The issues were being strictly enforced as the students walked through the stands during the football game with garbage bags collecting bottles and cans.
“We are in a competition with FSU to see who can recycle the most items, and we are getting ready for the campaign on Nov. 8,” said Kiara Wright, 20, from Washington D.C., who is also a member of the coalition.
In their green and white shirts students went through all the tailgating areas to pick up any plastic bottles, cans and any other recyclable materials to reach their desired goal and beyond.
“We are trying to get involved with more student organizations so that the job can be much easier,” Wright said.
She also said the initiative isn’t well publicized and student participation is key to this organization reaching its goal.
The coalition is trying to get involved with the campus dorms, in order to reach the goal they have set and then some.
“Some students were unaware of the environmental group that we have on campus,” said Ian Smith, 19, pharmacy student from Memphis, Tenn. “The coalition is trying to get as much student involvement as possible.”
Smith said he was one of the students that were uninformed.
“I think the green era is great, I really didn’t know anything about this group and I wanted to participate,” Smith said.
If you are interested in participating in the coalition’s activities, the next meeting will be held on Thursday Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. in the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication Atrium room.