On April 8, approximately 150,000 discarded bottles were dumped into the UCF Reflecting Pond to raise awareness about the consequences of plastic trash.
The collective effort of the Student Government Association, UCF Recycles and the student organization I.D.E.A.S. for UCF began at 4:30 a.m., and continued throughout the day, with 108 volunteers emptying bins of the recycled items into the normally off-limits campus landmark.
Students drawn to the disturbing sight were encouraged to sign a pledge to reduce their personal waste and energy consumption.
Those who signed the pledge received a T-shirt and a reusable water bottle to inspire them to change their single-use plastic water bottle habit.
“It’s easy to disregard facts and figures about garbage, but it’s difficult to ignore thousands of bottles floating in front of you.” — Emily Dovydaitis, SGA health and sustainability coordinator
“Nothing like this has been done on campus before and we hope its historic nature will be enough to get people to do something about protecting our environment.” — Emily Dovydaitis, SGA health and sustainability coordinator