Trash is King: Students model 'trashy' fashion for sustainability

Stories about "EcoReps"

They don’t call it a trash can’t: Can-do students model fashion created from campus trash

Friday, November 18, 2022 9:59 am

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” as the proverb goes, and students took it to heart — and to the runway — during the 16th annual Trashion Show, and the first in-person edition since 2019.

“We’re at the Bates Garden and we’re doing something different this year, which is just cultivating a third of the garden with butternut squash and cherry tomatoes. The rest we’re just leaving to cover crop so we’ve planted oats and peas, and that will keep the weeds down amd also put a lot of organic material back into the soil.What we’ve also done differently is we’ve let a lot of stuff become wildflowers, and it’s really neat. It’s the most insect life I think I’ve ever seen in the garden. So we’re thinking about doing that going forward.The butternut squash we’re growing because it basically takes care of itself. Aaprt from Hermione, whose been volunteering every weekin the garden, we don’t have any paid student gardeners this year.This year we’ll probably send the cherry tomatoes to dining. A lot of the squash we’re going to send to St. Mary’s Food Bank.”Tom Twist, Sustainability ManagerFacility Servicesν “It’s just cool spending time with Tom and gardening. Quarantining can be kind of isolating so it’s nice to be out here and do some physical work, something that’s physical in the garden. And it’s nice to see them grow that fast. And we’ve got berries down there as well: strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. And apple trees.”Environmental studies major Hermione Zhou '21 of Shenzhen, ChinaTom says: “The blackberries are wild. Everything else we put in.” And they’ll be picking them too!

How’s Bates doing in sustainability? The answer is Gold

Friday, November 19, 2021 9:13 am

One of 10 "Top Performer"s in the country, Bates earned a Gold rating for excellence in sustainability performance from an international benchmarking organization.

Slideshow: Students’ dazzling Trashion Show outfits — and a professor

Wednesday, November 17, 2021 12:21 pm

Introducing the creative teams of the 2021 Trashion Show, including a Bates professor modeling COVID lounge wear made from face coverings.

Ecorep Tamsin Stringer ’22 of Bloomington, Ind., poses at the new electric charger stations behind Underhill in the Merrill Gym parking lot.“Underhill Electric Vehicle Chargers Project “Bates has installed other EV chargers in the past. This project will be different for three primary reasons. First, we have already received a grant from CMP for the make-ready infrastructure portion of the project, which has historically been the bulk of the expenses for EV charger installations. Secondly, this project will include installing level 2 chargers for the first time at Bates, which will allow for monetary collections for charging, tiered charging for different kinds of customers, and incentivize to move one’s car once it's fully charged. Finally, this project allows for future EV charger installations in the same location for much lower cost, because the make-ready infrastructure for more EV chargers will be easily accessible.

Student energy puts a charge into new electric-vehicle stations

Thursday, November 11, 2021 2:07 pm

One finding from a Bates survey on electric vehicle use gave Tamsin Stringer '22 a jolt: Bates needed more EV plugins, so she set out to help.

I am a philosophy major and I got the idea from a younger sibling who has a large interest in entomology told me about the Zophobas morio. I keep the larvae in storage and I use a large plastic storage bin as their enclosure. Theoretically, with the number of worms (2,000) that I have, it should take them a year to consume 92 grams of styrofoam. I will just use the adult beetles for breeding and the only reason why adult beetles would stop breeding is that they have died. Thursday would be best for the photo. Best, Henri Emmet

Worms ate my coffee cup! and other Green Innovation Grants for 2019–20

Tuesday, February 25, 2020 4:36 pm

From plastic-eating worms to stapleless staplers, Bates' Green Innovation Grants support surprising — and surprisingly effective — sustainability projects.

Slideshow: From rubbish to runway at the 2019 Trashion Show

Tuesday, December 10, 2019 2:15 pm

At the 2019 Trashion Show, student models and designers posed for portraits and explained the creativity behind their outfits made from campus trash.

A day in the life of Pettengill Hall, featuring staff, faculty and students engaged in learning, studying, and working, with both internal and external images.Looking through the windows of the second floor AAACS lounge toward the Cutten smokestack.

Bates College attains carbon neutrality ahead of schedule

Thursday, May 16, 2019 4:00 am

Out of some 700 U.S. colleges and universities to sign a carbon-neutrality pledge in 2007, Bates is one of only seven to date that have reached that goal.