Blue goes green

It's going green.

This year's Rising Star picnic will have biodegradable utensils, plates, and napkins, as well as recycling stations. The event is scheduled from 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 19 on the quad lawn. If it rains the event will be moved to Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center. Buffet lines will be set up throughout the building.

The supplies for the picnic are from a company called Excellence in Packaging and Supply. The picnic will include their Biomass packaging line, which includes two kinds of products, Spudware and Bagasseware.

Spudware is made from potatoes and Bagasseware is made from corn, wheat, sugar cane and a few other natural products.

"We're using both," Food Services Director Brett Wheat-Simms said. "The plates are Spudware and the utensils are Bagasseware."

The idea of events on campus becoming more environmentally friendly started with students and the Student Affairs' Sustainability Committee. Wheat-Simms is the chairman of the committee.

"The students have really been wanting the campus to be more sustainable," Wheat-Simms said. "We wanted to set an example to the campus on how to be more environmentally friendly.

"It's student-driven, but committee-driven as well."

The committee was started in hopes of making the campus more eco-friendly, Wheat-Simms said.

"The goal of the committee is to look at the practices we do now as a university and make them more sustainable," he said. "We started looking at events and we thought the easiest way to be sustainable was through individual events.

"The first one that came to mind was the Rising Star picnic."

The plan for the picnic is to have volunteers at the recycling stations to assist with disposing of garbage and items that can be recycled, Wheat-Simms said.

"We will have three recycling stations," he said. "We're taking care of getting the things to the right place."

The "blue goes green" theme is more than a theme, Wheat-Simms said.

"Those of us who call OCU home are seriously thinking about how to be more responsible for our environment," he said. "That's blues goes green.

"It's all about taking responsibility for our environment."

At the event buttons will be passed out with the phrase "Blue goes green, do your part."

The picnic isn't the only event that will have the new biodegradable products; Trip's Block Party from 8-11 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 22 also will be using the products from EPS.

The caf and Alvin's Café also is making the switch to biodegradable food utentils.