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Jubal Pierson collects trash during Montana State University-Northern's Campus Improvement Day Monday at the MSU-N campus in Havre. While the center of campus was clear of most litter, Pierson manage to fill his bag by heading to the outskirts of the campus.
Montana State University-Northern students convene outside the SUB during campus improvement day Monday at the MSUN campus in Havre. Students were given the opportunity to collect litter to get a free meal.
On Earth Day, Montana State University-Northern had its Campus Improvement Day where students could turn bags of trash into a free meal.
Northern students Parker Deighan and Kareem Elhajj said Monday they are both part of the recycling crew on campus, a paid student position which empties recycling bins on campus. They added that Monday's Earth Day event is the recycling crew's yearly event to try to get students to interact with cleaning up campus.
Elhajj said that they give students trash bags and gloves and have them go around campus to pick up trash. They can clean the grounds of the campus or clean up their rooms or hallways in the dorms.
"Anywhere they find trash that shouldn't be there," he said.
After students have filled up their bags of garbage they throw them in the back of the recycling crew's pickup truck, he said. In return the students received a ticket for a free meal from the cafeteria - barbecue chicken, potato salad and ice cream made special for the day, he said.
Deighan said that recycling is important in everyday life.
"Why add to the landfill when you can go and have it be reused?" he asked. "We have enough trash laying around."
The recycling crew separates the recyclables and take them to the Havre Day Activity Center or to Pacific Steel and Recycling depending on the material, he said. He added that he, Deighan and Sustainability Coordinator Austin Wiese are the only workers in Northern's recycling crew.
Both Elhajj and Deighan are diesel, welding and agricultural technology students, they said, adding that the recycling crew is a good campus job because it works around their schedules.
"We just kind of got wrangled into it," Deighan said.
He added that he has another job outside of recycling crew and it is nice he can work with the recycling crew during the week and still be able to work on the ranch on the weekends.
Monday was Earth Day, an annual event celebrated April 22.
A worldwide event, Earth Day is held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in 1970 and includes events in more than 193 countries.
Elhajj said at about 5:30 p.m. that since he and Deighan took over at 4 p.m., more than 30 people turned in trash bags. Before they started at 4 p.m., Wiese and former director Alex Lankford were working the event.
He added that Northern athletes on campus also got involved as a group and walked around campus, picking up trash.
The Earth Day Campus Improvement Day is an annual event sponsored by the sustainability program, the only event that the recycling crew holds during the year, Elhajj said.
"It's been a routine thing for a while," he said.
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