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Thursday, April 16, 2015

Earth Day events at URI April 21 -24

URI to celebrate Earth Day with zero-waste speaker, celebration on the Quad, campus clean-up

KINGSTON, R.I. – The University of Rhode Island will celebrate Earth Day with a series of events from April 21 to 24 that includes a speaker who lives a zero-waste lifestyle, an environmental education festival on the Quad, a field trip to the Johnston landfill, and a campus clean-up.

All events are hosted by the URI student group Student Action for Sustainability and sponsored by the URI Student Senate. The events are free and open to the public.

Laura Singer, a New York City-based environmentalist who documents her zero-waste lifestyle in her blog Trash is for Tossers, will speak at the URI Memorial Union at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21. In her presentation, she will discuss how she creates nearly no trash and how her lifestyle is simple, cost-effective, fun and possible for everyone to follow. Door prizes for those seeking to follow Singer’s tips will be offered.




Student organizations, academic departments and environmental organizations will participate in a festival on the URI Quadrangle on Wednesday, April 22 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Each exhibitor will provide interactive environmental education activities in which the public may participate. 

Among the activities will be laundry bingo, worm composting, seed planting, and a petting zoo of animals from URI’s Peckham Farm. 

Exhibitors include Save the Bay, Horticulture Club, Wildlife Club, Marine Science Society, Cooperative Extension Water Quality Program, Engineers for a Sustainable World, Student Action for Sustainability, URI Outreach Center and many more.

Students interested in taking a field trip to the Johnston landfill to learn how the Rhode Island Resource and Recovery Corp. processes and recycles waste should sign up by sending an email to vanessagarcia16@my.uri.edu. The field trip will take place from 8:30 to 11 a.m. on Thursday, April 23. 

The movie Wall-E, the Disney film about a robot cleaning up an abandoned, waste-covered Earth, will be shown in Swan Hall on April 23 at 6:30 p.m.

The Earth Day celebrations will conclude on Friday, April 24 with a campus cleanup. Anyone interested in participating should meet at the Quad at 3 p.m.

For more information about the Earth Day events, contact Vanessa Garcia at vanessagarcia16@my.uri.edu.