The Tartan

By Harini Sundaram

In an effort to combat campus waste and promote sustainability, Carnegie Mellon is witnessing innovative initiatives that are not only raising awareness but also actively engaging the student body in waste reduction practices. The Thrifty Mellon club and the Green Practices Committee’s Fixit Fair are two examples of how the Carnegie Mellon community is rallying together to foster a culture of sustainability.

On Feb. 6, the Sustainability Studio hosted a mending workshop called the Fix-it Fair on the main floor of Hunt Library. This event is one component of the university’s broader Race to Zero Waste Initiative, an eight-week competition dedicated to meticulously tracking the weights of disposed items, donated food, and recyclables to enhance diversion and recycling rates across the campus.

According to Carnegie Mellon’s website, the initiative will track “the weights of how much we throw out, how much food we donate, and how much we recycle. With the goal of increasing our diversion and recycling rates throughout the competition!”

Adding to this robust framework of sustainability initiatives is Deborah Steinberg, the Green Practices and Sustainability Manager at Carnegie Mellon, who discussed the importance of mending and repairing as key strategies for waste minimization.

“All of this is inspired by our efforts to reduce waste,” Steinberg told The Tartan. She said that most people learn the three Rs — reduce, reuse, and recycle — and that while recycling is often the most emphasized term, it is the least important. “The best thing is to reuse our clothes when we’re tired of them by swapping. The idea of this fair is to give the skills to help you prolong your items,” she said.

Thrifty Mellon, which holds monthly sustainability and thrift events, hosted the Print and Thrift Event in the Danforth lounge on the same day as the Fix-it Fair. This event encouraged creative reuse by allowing participants to carve their own stamps and print on thrifted clothes or thrift clothes for $1. The club’s approach to collect student donations and sell items at a cheaper price has helped reduce waste and cultivate a community of sustainability-conscious individuals.

“We wanted to make a place for people to donate things to other students, because there’s a lot of gentrification of thrift stores, especially in this area. So, we wanted to make accessible options for students,” said fourth-year math major Emma Hayes, co-president and cofounder of Thrifty Mellon.

Thrifty Mellon was inspired by a vision to tackle campus waste, sparked by students witnessing wasteful practices during moveout periods. Through 14 events over the last three years, the club has provided approximately 500 items of clothing a second life.

Fourth-year design major Tara Banatwala, the other copresident of Thrifty Mellon, said the group is driven by a shared passion. The club “started as just a few people,” she said, who were all interested in sustainability efforts. “Whatever you’re passionate about, just find the people who you want to work with and are also passionate about the same thing.”

Leading another of Carnegie Mellon’s sustainability efforts is Katrina D’Arms, a senior in civil and environmental engineering, who teaches the Sew Sustainable StuCo. Her approach to sustainability through sewing began when she mended a roommate’s coat and realized the potential impact of sewing skills. She then started teaching workshops at Techspark and collaborating with Thrifty Mellon at a thrift-flip event, as well as volunteering as a mender at a previous Fix-it Fair. D’Arms began teaching the StuCo this semester.

“I find it super fulfilling, because it’s very fun just to help people with physical projects,” D’Arms said. “My hope is that people will walk out feeling comfortable enough … look[ing] up how to do it or do it on their own.” D’Arms has scheduled additional mending workshops for Feb. 16, March 22, April 5, and April 19.

The collaboration between Thrifty Mellon and other campus initiatives, such as the Race to Zero Waste, underscores the impact of collective action in advancing sustainability.

In harmony with these new programs, Sustainability Initiative Intern and third-year student Purva Bommireddy, who studies civil engineering and statistics and machine learning, focuses on expanding Carnegie Mellon’s sustainability community beyond its campus. While not involved in the Fix-it Fair, she is working on planning youth symposiums with universities such as Chatham and Pitt and bi-weekly snack hours to focus on sustainability around different themes.

“The goal is to build community among leaders of campus groups and allow them to connect and share resources and gain new skills related to leadership and sustainability,” Bommireddy said. “As the community engagement intern, I see many opportunities for campus collaboration, and I enjoy bringing the student perspective to university-wide sustainability goals.”