TCD Recycling Initiative benefits Children’s Hospital
Posted on: 07 February 2008
Senator David Norris Launches Trinity College’s 6th Annual Green Week
A donation of €5,000 was made to the Diabetes Unit at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin by Trinity College Dublin at the launch of Green Week 2008 today. The funds were raised through one of Trinity’s many recycling initiatives, which has been in place since 2005 in association with David Kiernan, who services about 1,000 businesses in Dublin on a part-time, voluntary basis recycling printer cartridges and mobile phones.
In its 6th year at Trinity, this year’s Green Week theme is ‘sustainability’. Events focusing on this issue include the Simon Perry Memorial Symposium entitled ‘Irish Third Level Colleges – Climate Change and Sustainable Development’ which is sponsored by Coillte with Prof. Eduardo Peris Mora from the Polytechnic University of Valencia as the guest speaker. Throughout the week staff and students of the College will be able to bring in domestic WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) items for recycling in College – irons, microwave cookers, toasters, kettles, etc. This initiative is sponsored by WEEE Ireland.
Trinity College will also launch its first sustainability policy during Green Week. The aim of the policy is to encourage staff and students of the College to consider sustainable development in their activities on campus including teaching, research, services and administrative operations and that they are carried out in a way that protects and enhances the environment, conserves natural resources and supports the community and society as a whole.
The Green Week debate on genetically modified foods will be hosted by the Historical Society. Speakers will include Prof. Lord Taverne, founder of Sense About Science, Michael O’Callaghan, Co-ordinator of the GM-free Ireland Network, and Dr Michael K. Hansen, Senior Food Safety Scientist of the Consumers’ Union in the United States.
Trinity Green Week is a celebration of nature and provides a forum for staff and students to share ideas on how to protect the environment, within and outside College. Nature activities include guided walks where you can find out about the birds, trees and buildings in College and how they can be affected by human activity. Other events are aimed at finding ways of minimising environmental impact.
Green Week events open to the public include lunchtime walks in Trinity College such as the Building Stone Walk (Wednesday, February 6), Trees Walk (Thursday, February 7) and a Bird Walk (Friday, February 8). All walks will commence at 1 pm at the Campanile in Front Square, Trinity College.