Over 30 Greek Life societies have off-campus housing which means they do not have access to the convenience of UNC’s residential recycling programs. A waste composition study conducted by a group of interns for Orange County Waste Management showed that 26 percent of the trash they collected should have been recycled.
“The study took three days, the first two days we went around to the different fraternity and sorority houses and took their trash,” said Lily Schwartz, an intern on the project. “Then we set up shop in the Pit on a Saturday and sorted through the waste.”
In order to encourage the fraternities and sororities to have more sustainable behaviors and recycle more, Orange County Solid Waste Management partnered with The Office of Fraternity & Sorority Life and Community Involvement in order to create the Greek Green Games.
“The Greek Green Games are a competition,” Schwartz said. “For each different activity they do, points are awarded. At the end of the year the fraternity and the sorority with the highest points will be rewarded.”
The Greek Green Games website has a breakdown of all the possible ways points can be earned.
Members who sign the “I’d Tap That” pledge — which is a water sustainability pledge — can earn two points while those who help install a tankless water heater in the house can earn 500.
Schwartz said participation has been great. Each fraternity or sorority with an off campus house has selected a Green Chairperson to serve as a point of contact and organizer for each chapter. Some greek organizations, like Delta Kappa Epsilon, have already begun making plans to score as many points as possible.
“I would say the games have been going well,” said Wes Stroud, the Green Chairperson of Delta Kappa Epsilon. “I recently was able to reach out to the Orange County Solid Waste Management Department through the games so that we can implement an electrical waste bin within DKE.”
