Earth Day celebrations come to UA

"We are trying to inform the community on what environmental projects are going on and within their reach," said Christine Stauber, an environmental sciences senior.

The event was coordinated by Education by Example, a campus group sponsored by the University Activities Board, to teach people about the environment and promote campus-wide recycling.

"We want to demonstrate it's easy to protect our environment," Stauber said.

The University of Arizona's recycling office participated in the activities, handing out informational pamphlets.

"We had more people than we expected," said Richard Garb, UA's recycling coordinator. Garb said at least 200 students visited the booths.

"We had a lot more students asking questions," he said.

Garb said he thought the large number of interested students was due to the event's location, right in front of the Memorial Student Union.

Garb said the government mandates that the university recycle, but it allocates little funding for the process. The recycling center receives about $70,000 for employee salaries and operation expenses, he said.

"We do more for less than the other schools," Garb said.

Garb added that the UA has the smallest recycling staff of the three Arizona universities.

He said he thinks interest in Earth Day died out recently because of less media hype.

"The public focuses on what the media feeds us," Garb said. "This year there was less coverage."

In the future, Garb said he would like to see the recycling program get more involvement from the academic side of the university. He said he would like to see more exposure in classes.

"Most students we interact with are relatively into recycling and more aware than their counterparts 10 years ago," Garb said. "It's our job to make them more aware."

Garb said the recycling office is planning a competition next fall with Arizona State University to raise student interest.

The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, a local environmental group, set up a table on the Mall for students to sign petitions for various animal rights issues.

"We need the jaguar placed on the endangered species list," said Cody Hill, a member of the group.

The group had petitions and letters students could sign to set aside critical habitat for animals such as the cactus ferruginous owl.

"We're getting the information out," Hill said.

Amnesty International also did its share of getting the information out on human rights issues.

Amnesty International was invited to participate in Earth Day activities by Education by Example, said member Logan Robertson, a junior majoring in Spanish and creative writing.

The organization sponsored a "worry doll" campaign where students could make a doll in memory of people who died in the Guatemalan Civil War.