On Saturday, from 2:00 to 4:00, I went with Nate, Richard, Stephen, and Will to promote awareness about waste and sustainability for our Tailgating Service Project. We traveled across various areas in the campus, including Myers Quad and the Physics building, to educate tailgaters about recycling and gave them pins, informational cards, and trash bags to help promote their incentive to clean up after themselves. We switched around when we walked up to tailgaters in regards to promoting awareness about recycling and sustainability. Because it was a game day, we were all also expected to promote school spirit, such as by saying “go dawgs.”
I was very pleased in regards to the experience. The tailgaters were very friendly, and they were all interested in regards to the messages that we had to say. Before the experience, we all realized that we needed to give a speech to tailgaters about sustainability, but we were all somewhat anxious about giving such a speech, as nearly all the tailgaters were strangers to us. However, their friendliness helped us better give such a speech, which helped us spread the message about sustainability.
The experience helped me better understand the knowledge that some tailgaters are unaware of in regards to recycling and the sustainability incentives that the campus itself has, such as how UGA has various cardboard boxes around the campus so that tailgaters can easily dispose of their waste. After the experience, I was able to better build up my social abilities as a result of traveling around the various tailgates. Before the experience, I thought that spreading a message could ruin the tailgating experience for others. However, after the experience, I realized that this is not the case.
As a result of this experience, I will use the knowledge about recycling and sustainability for future events to encourage others to clean up after themselves. I understood the importance of recycling, but after the experience, I learned more about the items that can or cannot be recycled. In the future, with the knowledge that I have gained about goods that can or cannot be recycled, I will ensure that I properly dispose of trash in order to promote sustainability as a whole.