Earth Day arrives early this week in Cedar Falls. The official global environmental awareness day isn’t until Saturday but it’s being celebrated today (Tuesday) at the University of Northern Iowa. One of the organizers is Michaela Rich, program manager at U-N-I’s Recycling and Reuse Technology Transfer Center.
Rich says the event is for the campus community, students, faculty and staff to “increase environmental awareness and promote the concept of the green triangle” which is if you do something that’s good for your health, like riding a bicycle to class instead of driving a car, you can do something that’s saving money and also good for the environment.
Rich says a host of events and displays are planned, focused on luring people to take non-motorized forms of transportation to campus. Groups from on and off-campus will be making presentations and offering games and activities, and there’ll be free bicycle tune-ups. A U-N-I psychology professor will be there with his gas-electric hybrid vehicle while another educator will be showing off her electric car.
Rich says U-N-I students arrive at college tuned-in to recycling. She says many students come from towns that have curbside recycling and most of them are aware of Iowa’s bottle law, so they’re aware of recycling and want to know what U-N-I has available. U-N-I’s fourth annual Earth Day celebration will run from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. at the Maucker Union Plaza.