RSA Vice President of Advocacy Taha Adams Educates Students about Recycling
While students and faculty have returned to campus after the COVID-19 pandemic, many events have not yet resumed, according to Taha Adams, a third-year student and current Vice President of Advocacy at Northeastern’s Resident Student Association (RSA). This semester he resuscitated Recyclemania, an event that brings together numerous environmentally focused clubs to educate students on recycling. The event was held at the Curry Student Center on March 1st in collaboration with a multitude of organizations across campus.
“I’m not one to sit in the sidelines when it comes to problems,” Taha stated.
Campus organizations included trash 2 treasure, Off Campus Support, Terra Society, HEAT, SGA Sustainability Committee, CANU and the Northeastern Climate Justice and Sustainability Hub.
Each organization had a table and representative to engage with students and answer any questions. Additionally, each table had stickers that could be traded in for a prize or a treat. FoMu ice cream sandwiches were chosen as an allergen-friendly catering item, or students could spin a wheel to get a reusable water bottle, bamboo utensils, metal straws or a trash bin/recycling bin combo. Despite the event planning being a “massive undertaking” on top of his classes and extracurriculars, he noted that the outcome of it all was worth it.
From the giveaways to the music, Adams was in charge of every detail. He hand-selected instrumental background music that was “uplifting” and fit the theme.
Adams had this idea for a long time; during the winter involvement fair in January, he got in contact with clubs and began pitching the idea for the event. Ultimately, he was happy with the turnout. Students who were already at Curry stopped by, and some came specifically for the event and to learn more about recycling and sustainability.
“Seeing the fruits of labor at the end, it does make it all worth it,” Taha said. “I really was proud of how things turned out and look forward to seeing if it’s possible for future use, too.”
As the Vice President of Advocacy at the Resident Student Association, Adams sees advocacy, along with accessibility, as an important part of the movement towards more recycling. He recognizes that living sustainably is more economically feasible for some and not others, yet he hopes that Recyclemania could bring awareness to the simple ways to incorporate sustainability into people’s lifestyles.
“If there is something you can do about it, you should do something about it,” Adams said. “In fact, that is like the number one rule of advocacy.”
In the future, he hopes to work on a variety of advocacy initiatives including laundry and rental issues. Recyclemania was just the beginning of his work.
“I’ve really enjoyed, like, reaching out to all these boards and committees, like getting involved with the process, providing feedback that’s what I like doing,” Adams said. “I like being able to just be in the room, like talk about it, see what I can do about it, and see what other people are doing about it.”
Written by Renée Abbott, April 26th, 2023