Florida A&M University’s Green Coalition Club held a campus wide clean up on Saturday from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Registered students and organizations were invited to help embellish the campus property while receiving volunteer hours and a meal.
Andrea Pugh, a fourth-year environmental science student from Saginaw, Mich. and president of FAMUs Green Coalition Club explained what the is expected and believes that creating the campus clean up will encourage college students to alter their thought pattern on littering
“The goal of the event is to beautify the campus in preparation for homecoming,” Pugh said “We want to change the way our peers think about littering by taking the initiative to do something about it."
Students gathered in support of the Green Coalition Club motto, “Litter-free FAMU," by collecting trash and recyclables found around the Quadrangle, Lee Hall Auditorium, Palmettos apartments and FAMU Village.
Darshay Blount, a fourth-year industrial engineering student from Orlando, Fla., and representative for the Alpha Kappa Psi Fraternity expressed why having a clean environment is need.
“It is important to beautify and clean up the community especially campus because it reflects on how we present ourselves to the public. If the campus is dirty then people will think we don’t value our property,” Blount said.
According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 32 million tons of municipal solid waste was collected in 2014.
With the highly anticipated homecoming week ahead students were excited to prepare a clean environment for the alumni visiting FAMU’s campus.
Stephanie Smith, a third-year environmental science student from Jacksonville, Fla., said she wanted the school to be beautiful.
"I wanted to help with homecoming week and help clean up the school. It's already a beautiful campus. I just wanted to make it even more beautiful," Smith said.
To decrease the waste here are a few tips, buy in bulk, use reusable shopping bags not plastic bags and reuse old notebooks and folders.
The Green Coalition Club mission is to bring awareness to environmental issues and enhance the campus of FAMU by hosting events such as Earth Day at the Capitol, ECOnscious Days and FAMU Green summit.
for more information, visit http://sustainability.famu.edu/get-involved/green-coalition.