Name: Mary Bourque
Bio: Mary Bourque is a Junior majoring in Chemical Engineering and minoring in Earth and Environmental Engineering with big goals and passion. Mary is currently a Co-Leader of the Recycling Committee on EcoReps. She has also served on RHLO as the Sustainable Living Representative of Extreme West Campus. You can find her sorting through recycle bins on campus correcting common recycling mistakes, walking her personal vegan compost scraps to the farmers market on Sunday afternoons, or taking a stroll through the park petting the local Riverside dogs.
Platform: Increase Composting and Recycling in Mudd
Much of the Columbia community wishes to create an impact and compost locally. However, the only opportunity to compost on campus currently include a very limited number of students in residence halls through Columbia EcoReps and the farmer’s market during select hours on Thursday and Sunday afternoons. I have also witnessed an overflow of trash from take-out food in Carleton Commons every single afternoon and evening. Therefore, I propose these solutions:
• Reach out to faculty and administrative staff in engineering departments to gauge interest in composting in each departmental kitchen and floor. This would also require coordination with Columbia EcoReps and implementing composting bins and designated scheduling and pick-up.
• Place a plastic bag recycle bin in Carleton Commons to be collected weekly. EcoReps currently collects plastic bags to recycle. I also propose better instructions for how to recycle the plastic take-out containers and utensils to be placed in Carleton Commons.
Reducing Mudd’s Restroom Sustainability
Flushing your toilet produces the largest impact on your household water footprint. While many residence halls have dual-flush mechanisms, the majority of toilets in Mudd does not. It is easy to install these mechanisms and would have a large impact on the building’s sustainability. Also, on many of the floor bathrooms there are only paper towels to dry your hands. Therefore, I propose to:
• Retrofit Mudd’s toilets with dual-flush mechanisms to conserve water.
• Install hand dryers to reduce paper waste.
Collaborate with campus sustainability groups on campus-wide sustainability initiatives
While I wish to serve on ESC to promote sustainability specific to Engineers on campus, especially in the engineering building, I think it is equally vital to use ESC’s resources to promote campus-wide sustainability initiatives. It is important to cultivate Columbia’s eco-friendly goals and create an environment of young minds aware of sustainability challenges and solutions they engage in (knowingly or not) on a regular basis. Therefore, I will continue to collaborate with campus sustainability groups such as EcoReps through large-scale campus-wide sustainability initiatives, some examples of which are below:
• Increase the number of composting bins on campus
• Install recycling bins in every suite-style dorm in residence halls
• Ensure all floors have correct signage in residence halls describing and visually depicting the correct items to place in the recycle bins, including special recycle bins and their locations (better promote plastic bag recycling in laundry rooms, clothes and textiles recycling in select residence halls and special electronic waste and textbook collection in Lerner as well as FLIP textbook donation)
• Increase recycling education, especially to first-year students during NSOP
• Educate students about the importance of conserving electricity in their residences both year-round with items such as power strips and lamp timers, and also before students leave for winter break and spring break when they may not be considering the effects of leaving appliances turned on or plugged in while they are away