Cheers erupted in the HUB-Robeson Center on Friday afternoon when a Recycling Flash Mob celebrated the first person who passed by a water bottle placed on the ground and took the time to recycle it.
While a typical flash mob consists of masses of people dancing in unison, this flash mob had no dancing. Instead, participants stood up to cheer on the student who took the second to recycle a water bottle intentionally placed on the ground.
The event was organized by members of the Association of Residence Hall Students, National Residence Hall Honorary and Eco-Reps, with help from the Clown Nose Club. It was the final event of the weeklong Great Recycling Challenge planned by the Eco-Reps.
“There was actually a Youtube video where this was done up in Canada,” NRHH Vice President Patrick Ritsko said. “A lot of people have seen it and that’s what sort of inspired us to do this event.”
Participants in the flash mob started at 12:30 p.m. at the bottom of the HUB staircase, a place filled with foot traffic in between classes.
In about 10 minutes, one student, Allison Schultz, recycled the water bottle.
“We were pleased that [Schultz] ended up picking it up that quickly,” ARHS President Caleb Fernandez said.
When Schultz (junior-secondary education and English) was walking through the HUB, she said she noticed the water bottle was directly in her path and the recycling bin wasn’t in its normal location, but she had no suspicion of what would happen when she picked it up.
“It was kind of just a natural reaction,” she said about her act to recycle the water bottle.
As a reward for picking up the water bottle, Schultz was given a Nittany Lion stuffed animal and gift certificate to the Berkey Creamery.
ARHS was immediately on board with the flash mob when approached by NRHH, Fernandez (sophomore-communications) said.
On top of the participants involved in cheering, people passing by joined in as well, Fernandez said.
“When we got down there, I encouraged our participants to nudge the person next to them to tell them what was going on to get involved if they could,” Ritsko (senior-energy, business and finance) said.
The event concluded with the participants starting a “We Are” chant for everyone in the HUB to join in.
To email reporter: jzs5661@psu.edu
