People poured into the student center ballroom Wednesday evening to celebrate the annual ‘RecyclePalooza,’ an event with games, prizes, and food to teach students about sustainable living and recycling.

The event kicked off this year’s Race to Zero Waste, which the Kent State sustainability page describes as “a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for colleges and universities, where schools reduce institutional waste through minimization efforts such as donating, anaerobic digestion, composting, recycling, and more.”

RecyclePalooza is set up by the Kent Interhall Council. KIC member Shaine Price described the event.

“It’s to promote teaching about sustainable living while teaching people how to recycle, and the importance of recycling,” Price said. “This event helped promote those ideas. Going to these fun events, you learn about it in an interactive way, and are more likely to do it and see it.”

Price said this event is about more than the Race to Zero Waste and training the council. 

“I think it pushes people to be more aware that recycling is something that needs to be done,” he said. “It’s a step in the right direction towards helping our conservation effort as a whole, because this is our only planet.”

Students who attended the event had mixed feelings, though many students had positive words to say about the event. Freshman zoology major Sean Ganey complemented the event’s neon decorations. Sophomore Sammy Stiles and senior Alexis Katzenmeyer, both interior design majors, said they had fun with painting and putt-putt.

However, students also had complaints about the event. Stiles said she thought it would be a little bit more crowded with activities, along with Katzenmeyer, who described the event as “lackluster.”

Although there were some mixed feelings among the student body, many of the people who helped run the event considered it a success, including Joe Driscoll, the economic representative of Olson Hall.

“I think people are having a lot of fun – the mini golf is a big hit,” he said. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting this many people. I’m really happy with how many showed up.”

Quintin Page is a reporter. Contact Quintin at [email protected].