The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 7/23/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Aaron Montoya Tyler Waye, a 22-year-old senior natural resources major, sorts through a bin of paper July 14, in the Rigdon warehouse, a university owned storage and processing facility. Live Green Team volunteers will be sorting through waste at the Democratic National Convention Aug. 25-28 with the goal of 85 percent recycling rate in mind.

As CSU's prominent image as "the green university" becomes more and more visible nation-wide, the school will hit its biggest green stage yet on Aug. 25.

Hundreds of students will go through every scrap of trash at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, ensuring the Democratic Party will reach their goal of recycling, reusing or composting 85 percent of the waste generated by the convention.

The four-day event is expected by party leaders to be their biggest convention ever.

The DNC Committee contacted CSU and asked if administrators would be up to the task of finding 520 volunteers to meet the goal.

Tonie Miyamoto, the head of the Live Green Team, the group charged with recruiting the volunteers, said she is excited for the event. But her excitement is not for the thick political climate of this year's presidential race, but rather for the environment.

"This is not a political issue, this is a global issue," said Tonie Miyamoto.

Using what they call "guerilla marketing," the Live Green Team has been busy posting flyers, setting up booths and using Facebook and word of mouth to spread news of the effort.

Their goal is 520 volunteers, so they will continue the guerrilla marketing to promote the event.

Miyamoto said she is confident they will reach their goal, but they continue to promote and spread the word of the effort to the individual and the university.

The Live Green Team currently has 310 faculty, staff and alumni signed up.

The DNCC chose CSU because would be the best candidate for the job, because of recent efforts by the university to market itself as environmentally conscious, Miyamoto said.

Last year CSU finished second in RecycleMania, a national collegiate competition pitting 400 colleges and universities against each other to see who could recycle the most. CSU came in second to Kalamazoo College, a small public Michigan institution.

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