Spirit Splash is typically the only time during the year when students are allowed to enter the UCF Reflecting Pond. But on Wednesday, approximately 150,000 plastic water bottles filled the pond in an attempt to show waste and promote sustainability.
With the help of David Norvell, assistant vice president of sustainability, and UCF Recycles, event coordinators were able to successfully calculate and collect the number of plastic bottles it would take to fill the pond.
Organizers hope that by seeing all the single-use plastic bottles in the pond, the University of Central Florida community will see the negative impact plastic bottles have on the environment and stop using them.
“I don’t think a lot of people see how much waste is produced,” said Emily Dovydaitis, Student Government Association (SGA) Health & Sustainability Coordinator. “Trash is taken to landfills and you never see how much is actually generated.”
Reflect on Sustainability, as the event has been coined, is the first partnership between SGA, UCF Recycles and Advanced Disposal to celebrate Earth Day. The event is scheduled from 4:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.
“UCF is a large university known for a lot of things,” said Dovydaitis. “Nothing like this has been done on any campus before and we hope its historic nature will be enough to get people to do something about protecting our environment.”
Volunteers signed up to load and unload plastic bottles from recycling bins and place them in the pond.