The Wayne Green Team has been busy advocating for sustainability in the community through their many events.
The most notable event they have held recently was the free Earth Day movie at the Majestic Theater.
“We do these earth day movies, free, every year,” Sandy Brown, the president of the Green Team, said. “This was our tenth, and we had a great turn out this year. There were a lot of college students and even high school students who showed up.”
Brown says it’s been incredible to see how responsive members of the community are to improving sustainability.
“In just last year, we recycled over 70,000 pounds of different materials,” Brown said.
The Green Team is also heading a campaign to help stop the release of helium balloons at UNL football games.
“We are also doing a postcard campaign,” Brown said. “We mail them to the athletic director at the University of Nebraska Lincon. They had stopped releasing ballons at football games, but they restarted that last fall, which is very sad.”
Brown started in the organization shortly after she moved here in 2011 and became president after the former president Lois Shelton moved away.
“Once we got rolling and I found out there were so many people here who cared about sustainability and protecting the environment, it’s been a lot easier to make progress than you would think,” Brown said.
The green team has also set up several spots around Wayne where people can recycle certain items that couldn’t otherwise be easily recycled.
“[The public library] have become a recycling drop off spot,” Brown said. “You can bring in household batteries, ink cartridges and markers.”
There are other drop-off spots on campus in the college library and in the Carhart building for those on campus that want to dispose of any of those items.
Another recycling project that The Green Team helps with is the used bookstore. Brown says it has been a good way for the public library to make a little extra money.
“Nothing is more than a dollar,” Brown said. “They sell games used CDs, DVDs, magazines and, of course, used books.”
The bookstore is currently located in the former Final Touch building at 110 S Windom, however it will be moving within the next year.
“It’s hard to get the word out because it’s only open the first Saturday of the month from nine to one,” Brown said.
For anyone interested in joining the Green Team, Brown said the organization meets the second Tuesday of every month at noon in the conference room of the S&N Bank or they could just contact her personally.