Author: Susannah Kistler

New way to recycle plant pots, trays

| Susannah Kistler

Woman putting soil in empty black seed trays

The Ohio State University Facilities Operations and Development (FOD) and the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) are teaming up to collect your unwanted plant pots, cell packs, and trays so that they can be recycled.

Event Details:

• Date: Monday, July 7 – Monday, July 28

• Location: By Old Laundry Building (near dumpsters in parking lot near UniPrint) 2560 Kenny Road

• Instructions: Pots must be free of soil, brushed out and stacked neatly inside the recycling carts lined with orange bags for easy collection. Empty any soil in the nearby green compost toters.

• Please bring only plastic items for recycling. At this time, we cannot accept pots made from peat, pulp, or other biodegradable materials.

• Please note: The drop-off site will not be staffed.

All collected materials will be recycled through the Hefty ReNew Program through the Rumpke Material Recovery Facility in Columbus, Ohio. Any items that have reached the end of their useful life will be responsibly recycled.

Interested in doing more? Sign up for the free faculty and staff compost drop-off program to continue your involvement throughout the year.

Textile recycling opportunities

| Susannah Kistler
It can be hard to decide what to do with clothes, towels, sheets, etc. when they’re torn or stained to the point of being unusable. SWACO is currently running a pilot to take these end-of-life textiles to be recycled domestically for things like punching bags, bedding, casket padding and more.
There are currently two SWACO drop-off locations in central Ohio (with more to be added), and Ohio State faculty, staff and students can drop off at Kottman Hall from June 1 to Aug. 1.

Columbus Science Pub: Ohio’s New Normal, After Climate Change

| Susannah Kistler

Columbus Science Pub, a monthly event series hosting science-focused presentations from experts, is featuring Jim Stagge, PhD, at the Up Front Performance Space on Jan. 9, 2025, to “describe how climate change impacts the hydrologic cycle, affecting the seasonality of precipitation and intensifying extremes like drought and flood.”

He’ll explain how tree rings can be linked with modern observations and climate model simulations to show how these things have changed over the last 100 years, particularly focusing on climate in Ohio/the Midwest and our “new normal” under climate change.

Tickets are available for $5, but the code “getnerdy” waives this fee.

If you’d like to sit with or near other Green Team members — or just want to be sure to connect at the event — please contact Michelle Pennington and Julia Wilson at pennington.165@osu.edu and julia.wilson@osumc.edu.

See Facebook event from Columbus Science Pub

Get tickets here

Dispose of medications correctly: National Drug Take Back Day is Oct. 26

| Susannah Kistler

Hand grabbing a prescription bottle of pills from a medicine cabinet full of medications

Disposing of unused or expired medicine correctly can help protect the environment and others in your community.

The next National Drug Take Back Day is Saturday, Oct. 26, but there are ways to safely dispose of these medications even if you can’t get out to a take-back event.

Learn more at Ohio State Health & Discovery:

3 ways to safely throw away old medicine that’s unused or expired

Join the Green Team and FOD for a Litter Pick-up and Walk

| Susannah Kistler

May 21: Litter Pick-Up While Walking or Jogging

Join Ohio State Facilities Operations and Development (FOD) Landscape Services team on May 21 for some campus “plogging” fun to pick up litter while walking, jogging or running. Time slots are available from 11 a.m. to noon and noon to 1 p.m. Share your #BuckeyeLove for the environment while enjoying the benefits of physical activity and spending time outdoors.

Register online and meet at Meiling Hall on May 21 to pick up supplies.

Earth Day Park Grand Opening

| Susannah Kistler

A bee visits pink flowers

Celebrate World Bee Day and the Earth Day Park Grand Opening with Ohio State’s Green Team Employee Resource Group, featuring our new bench made from recycled materials from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center! We’ll also recognize Claire Bollinger, PhD, recipient of the “2024 Woman of the Year” Green Team ERG award in recognition of her outstanding commitment to education and excellence in sustainability.

When: 9 a.m. May 20
Where: Earth Day Park (348 West 8th Ave. behind the 9th Avenue Parking Garage)

To build the bench, the Green Team collected #6 plastics (Solo cups, CD cases, clear plastic drinking cups) from some Ohio State staff and worked with Marble Plastics to rework and build the bench from those materials. Each bench requires about 150 pounds of #6 plastics. There are plans for future benches to be added to the park, but the cost of this initial bench is covered by an Ohio State Energy Partners Wexner Medical Center Sustainability grant.

#6 plastics aren’t typically recyclable through conventional recycling programs. If you’re looking for another way to recycle these plastics, you can check out the Hefty ReNew program, which has partnered with Rumpke Waste & Recycling in central Ohio.

EPN Earth Day event: ‘Eat This Earth Day! Ohio’s Native Plants for Food’

| Susannah Kistler

Eat this Earth Day! Ohio's Native Plants for Food

The Ohio State University’s Environmental Professionals Network is holding an event from 4:45 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 22, examining “our place among Ohio’s native food web and explores the work of leading gardeners, educators, herbalists and foragers, amateurs and other groups stewarding native plants for food.”

Learn more about the free event, available in-person but also livestreamed, at epn.osu.edu.

Earth Month webinar: Greening the OR

| Susannah Kistler

Join the Green Team ERG on April 5 at noon

In celebration of Earth Day April 22, the Green Team ERG will be hosting a variety events all month, including webinars, plant giveaways, and a cooking demo. Become a member via this link to receive our newsletter with more details.

To start Earth Month, join the Green Team from noon to 1 p.m. April 5 for a webinar with Vidya Raman, MD, MBA, FASA, FAAP, on sustainability in the operating room.

Some topics that will be covered:

– Sustainability as whole

– Health care contribution and perioperative operating room impact

– Anesthesia and surgery carbon footprint

– What we are doing at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center

– Future plans at the Wexner Medical Center

Dr. Raman is a clinical professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She has held a faculty appointment since 2007 and transitioned her clinical practice from Nationwide Children’s Hospital to the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center in 2022. She’s completed training in pediatrics, anesthesiology and pediatric anesthesia. Her research interests center around perioperative sustainability. She has given many national talks, podcasts and papers on the topic and hopes to make an impact on climate action through her work on perioperative sustainability. She has not only helped with decreasing Ohio State’s operating room carbon footprint, but also cost containment. Her work has saved over $100,000 in in 2023. She looks forward to making more of an impact and moving clinical engagement of sustainability beyond the perioperative spaces into other clinical areas.

Register for the webinar here.

Can’t make the webinar? A recording will be sent out to registrants and posted on this site.

Not part of the Green Team yet? You can join here: go.osu.edu/greenteamsignup

— By Judy Gregory

March 2024 webinar: Planning and Planting the Spring Vegetable Garden

| Susannah Kistler

Do you have a New Year’s resolution to start your own garden or do you just want to hear tips on how to improve your current garden?

Join the Green Team ERG on Tuesday, March 19, from 1-2 p.m. where Tim McDermott, DVM, will give us tips on planning and planting the spring vegetable garden.

Dr. McDermott joined the Ohio State University Extension at Ohio State in 2017 as an agriculture and natural resources educator after 20 years in private practice veterinary medicine and surgery. His area of specialization is local food production systems, and he is passionate about teaching people how to grow their own food.

The webinar will cover the following topics:

  • Getting started in spring gardening
  • What you can plant now
  • Soil testing
  • How to fertilize your spring garden to maximize your harvest

Register for the webinar here.

Dr. McDermott will be available to answer questions at the end of his presentation. Feel free to submit questions ahead of time to Judy Gregory, our new webinar moderator and Green Team education chair, at gregory.177@osu.edu.

Not part of the Green Team yet? You can join at go.osu.edu/greenteamsignup.

— By Judy Gregory

Do a Happy Little 5K for Earth Week

| Susannah Kistler

Run for the Trees Happy Little 5K logo with stylized Bob Ross image
Join the Green Team April 22-26, 2024, in running for the trees!

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) is hosting the Run for the Trees Happy Little 5K event again this year.

Inspired by the late artist Bob Ross and his love for the beauty of nature, this 3.1-mile virtual event will take place between Earth Day (April 22) and Arbor Day (April 26). Participants can complete the 5K on foot or by bike, skate, paddle or mobility device at any pace and any place outdoors.

Registration is $36 and participants will receive a Happy Little T-shirt (if registered by March 1), a commemorative bib number, and a finisher’s medal. Registration is encouraged by March 1 for these items to be delivered in time for the event. Registration closes April 1.

Grab some friends and get moving for the trees!

Learn more.

Register Here.

— By Beth Strausbaugh