Arts & Entertainment
Going Green for College Park Day
City, university officials looking to make festival environmentally friendly
With the first ever College Park Day approaching, officials from the city and the flagship University of Maryland campus said this week that they would work in tandem to make sure the inaugural festival is friendly to the environment.
The College Park Day -- to occur 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Oct. 9 -- is designed to showcase the city's diversity and inform residents of the services they have within city limits. Organizers also hope to connect businesses to one another during the event.
"We're very excited that they're taking the lead and showing that it's about the residents," said Gloria Aparicio Blackwell, the associate director for community relations at the University of Maryland. "It's not just about the university."
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Blackwell said Friday that school and city officials are discussing several options to reduce pollution. For instance, organizers of the October event might limit the amount of leaflets and flyers given out, many of which might be thrown out and create extra trash.
The organizers are also looking to influence more College Park residents to take shuttle buses to the event instead of driving to it, Blackwell said. Then, there are the compost bags that the university could donate to the city for the event.
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The University of Maryland uses collection bins for recycling, compost and trash at its athletic games. In its two dining halls, school officials pulp their compost material, which is placed in unlined trash cans and picked up by the compost hauler. The university's commitment to environmental sustainability recently earned it recognition from the Princeton Review, which ranked it as one of the nation's most eco-friendly campuses.
City Councilman Patrick Wojahn, lead organizer for the College Park Day, said the city is also looking to purchase renewable energy credits, which would help the city power the event using wind energy. "It's something we talked about from the beginning, to help us reduce our carbon footprint," Wojahn said. "This is a little bit of a new territory for the city."
