LEARN HOW TO BE AN ALLY TO THE PLANET

MHCC’s own sustainability expert, and Fardwosa Duale, campus safety and sustainability representative for Mt. Hood’s Associated Student Government, are gearing up for a Conservation Awareness event on campus next week.

The exhibit will be hosted from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, on the Main Mall.

The event comes a day after Earth Day, and can be a great way to celebrate Earth by learning how to better care for it. Students will learn what is recyclable and nonrecyclable, as well as how to fix broken items instead of throwing them away.

A followup event in June will also be something everyone can learn from. 

The Community Conservation and Repair Fair will be held from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 8, in the Yoshida Event Center.

Exhibitors from across the area, such as the City of Gresham and Agilyx Corp., will teach guests how they can save money while making a better impact on the planet. Tips on using less water and energy and growing your own foods will be presented, plus many others. 

The main goal is to share ways of saving money and resources. Guests may bring their own broken household items and get them fixed by volunteers. There will be free workshops, with advice on living more sustainably, while saving money. The first 200 people to arrive at the event will receive a free water conservation kit. 

Volunteers are needed for the June 8 fair. They will help set up chairs, help to direct vendors and exhibitors, and check people in and out. There is a lot of help needed and anyone interested can visit mhcc.edu/conservationfair or contact Troy Builta at [email protected]. 

The staff adviser for Mt. Hood’s conservation club and chair for the campus sustainability committee, Builta, says MHCC has a lot of room for improvement on sustainability.

There have been a lot of behind-the-scenes changes made to save energy that students may not know about. In 2014, Mt. Hood started saving by teaming up with the Energy Trust of Oregon. There are new fan rooms using less energy to push heated/cooled air through ventilation systems, solar panels have been installed on some roofs, and there are new boilers that heat water only when needed.

Builta has long noticed a significant problem with waste and recycling on campus, however. A lot of students don’t know how to recycle, and sometimes mistake their waste for recyclables, and vice versa. In 2016, a MHCC waste audit showed recycling levels of 30%.

“I think we can bring that up to at least 50%,” said Builta. He recommends that students make sure to check which items can be recycled. They can ask a sustainability specialist or department, or do some research.

One way to persuade students to make changes can be to show them the harm plastic is doing to the planet, to animals, and what it can do to humans. Builta mentioned the heartbreaking images showing the damage plastic is doing to animals: turtles with straws stuck in their nose, birds not able to fly because of the plastic wedged between their feathers, and sea animals wrapped in plastic.

If students understand that mistreatment, they might think twice before tossing their garbage in the streets, in rivers, and maybe start to reuse and recycle, Builta said.

“Our oceans are the heartbeat of the planet. If we keep going down this road, we might not have an ocean in the next 50-100 years,” he said.

Students can easily find many websites with information on sustainability. They may contact Gresham’s Sustainability Department or contact Troy for questions, and look either for him or Bobbie Hill, president of Mt. Hood’s conservation club, to join the club.

The club meets at 2 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of every month. Contact Builta for directions on where to meet.