New Environmental Initiatives Launched for Green Week

Posted on: 07 February 2005

Two new environmentally friendly schemes came into practice on campus with the launch of the third annual TCD Green Week on Monday 7 February 2005. The first is the introduction on a pilot basis of a new facility for recycling plastic drinks bottles. This will begin with two collection locations in the Buttery and the Hamilton Building and should it prove successful it is hoped to run the scheme throughout the College. The second initiative is the use of Trinity’s home grown compost on the campus grounds. Senator David Norris launched Green Week with a ‘ceremonial spreading’ of the College’s first delivery of home grown compost on Library Square. The compost production is a new element of TCD’s vast environmental campaign. Each week the organic waste generated in the College’s kitchens and from the maintenance of the grounds is collected by ONYX and treated in a plant in Co. Waterford, producing a compost suitable for horticultural on campus. The College recently achieved a 40% recycling threshold in the College, a 100% increase in the amount of recycling done by the College in just under a year. Through its recycling efforts Trinity has reduced its non-recyclable production by 33 tonnes since January 2004. Each year the Green Week symposium is held in the memory of Prof. Simon Perry who was the inspiration behind the College Environment and Recycling Committee. This year a new trophy, The Simon Perry Memorial Trophy, is being presented for the first time to the student who devised the best project aimed at improving the environment on campus. The trophy has been designed by Simon’s former colleagues, manufactured in the College’s workshops and is made completely from recycled materials. A full programme of Trinity Green Week events is available at http://www.tcd.ie/GreenPages.