UW SEED

What are SEEDlings doing this year?

Each school year SEED undertakes a variety of projects, setting goals for each quarter and delegating leadership and implementation to regular SEED members. A list of SEED project leaders can be found on the “About SEED” page under Officers but here are this year’s ongoing projects and below a brief summary of each:

• Composting
• Recycle and Re-use
• The Great Outdoors
• Conservation

What is Composting and what is SEED doing about it?

The composting project is a joint venture between SEED (Students Expressing Environmental Dedication) and HFS (Housing and Food Services). If you didn’t know, SEED was responsible for the paper recycling you now enjoy in the residence halls. This year, we are trying to do the same thing with composting-making it available to all students in their dorms and on their floors.

Composting is simply collecting all “compostable” materials, such as those nifty little to-go boxes HFS provides, in one location separate from garbage waste and recycling. Composting cuts down on harmful toxic waste which would otherwise rot in landfills and the list of benefits and uses continue. For more information on the benefits of composting and the role of HFS (Housing and Food Services) in this process, please take a look at our “Compost-what you oughta know” page.

SEED is helping to bring composting directly to those living in the residence halls by conducting a pilot program in Terry hall, in order to convince HFS to make composting, which is available in all dining facilities, accessible in each room on each floor. The project leaders, Bianca and Ashley, weigh the compost collected by the two trial floors and report their data back to HFS. We hope that HFS will see our promising results and invest in composting bins for EACH room in the residence halls, as well as a receptacle on each floor. It’s been an exciting process and we’re anxiously awaiting the results!

Recycle and Re-use

Recycle and Re-use is a program created in response to the massive amount of materials wasted each day, contributing to environmental degredation and non-sustainable living, and the simple solutions which could prevent this waste and reduce harmful consumption. The project team has organized a few initiatives, one being the Kleen Kanteens and “green bags” given away through raffle at the WASHPIRG sponsored Planet Earth showing. Using receptacles like the Kleen Kanteens reduce the harmful effects of plastic waste as a result of bottled water and the amount of energy wasted and carbon emitted in bottling such a natural and essentially free resource. Future programs may include a plastic bag recycling/collection campaign and pairings with WASHPIRG on their campaign against bottled water.

The Great Outdoors

If you love getting your hands dirty this is the project for you! The most exciting development this year by this project team has been the student garden, which came about as a result of the generous gift of land behind Fluke Hall and the support of the UW Urban farm and other campus resources. Ariana, among other excited SEED members, has headed the initiative and made our dream of a place where all students can gather and cultivate the earth a reality. We are currently breaking and tilling the ground in preparation for spring planting and will then be granting plots to students based on a first-come first-serve basis and genuine enthusiasm and committment. For more information and how you may be able to get your hands dirty take a look at our “Pea-Patch Student Garden” page.

Conservation

The Conservation project seeks to limit every day carbon emissions and waste of resources through sensible changes and modifications to lifestyle and technology, such as the project’s greatest achievement this past fall-collecting data on lightbulb energy efficiency and replaceable shower heads in the residence halls for a scheduled replacement by the city of Seattle of much more efficient mechanisms. SEED members put in hours of work, running gallons of water into buckets to measure those wasted and the potential gallons saved with the planned installation. The project is estimated to save millions of gallons of precious water and watts of energy every year and SEED is proud to have been part of such an impactful process. Efforts to switch inefficient lightbulbs for CFL’s has also been a key focus, with a light-bulb swap drive and tabling at various events, including the Face the Nation Climate Cafe, getting the word out about the benefits of the switch and the importance of conserving energy.

How can I participate?

All projects are open to SEED members and as the year progresses we are always looking for new project ideas and team leaders. To be a part of any of the current projects, please drop by a meeting!