The Hotel and Restaurant Management Green Team partnered with Center Point Energy for Recycle Mania 2013 to put together two films to inspire people to make a change to better the Earth.
Lecturer Anthony Caterina became the facility adviser to the HRM Green Team and helped put together screenings for “Tapped” and “WALL-E” at UH to help spread the word to go green and help people realize that small steps can make a big difference.
“I hope people can take away from this a view they have never seen before,” Caterina said. “The sustainability of our planet is money faceted; there are a lot of different directions and a lot of different views people have of what is going to save the planet.”
In the first movie, “Tapped,” the audience got a look into the bottled water industry and the harmful effects it has not only on our health but on our wallets as well. The film shows that the bottled water industry is almost completely self-regulated and says the water and packaging contains harmful substances.
The movie suggests that drinking faucet water is a lot safer than bottled water because of the stronger regulations placed on faucet water. According to the film, water from the faucet is tested numerous times a day with strict regulations, whereas the bottled water industry has been known to test their product within the company and have the results sent to the FDA.
“The point of this film was for people to see that there are alternatives out there and to get a better look of what you are actually buying into,” said HRM senior and green team president John Courter. “If you don’t buy it, they don’t make a profit.”
The second film, “WALL-E,” was shown in an effort to show what may happen if people don’t start making changes to help preserve our planet. It is important to remember that if everyone participates in recycling and makes small changes, it can go a long way.
“We need to make a better change for tomorrow … or else what you see in the movie will happen,” said Courter.
Recycle Mania 2013 is a national competition in which UH has won first place two years in a row. This year’s goal for the competition was to help UH reduce its trash intake and educate people on recycling.
According to a study done on the University’s trash intake, UH spends $43 per ton on trash and $13.11 on recycling. Out of all the trash collected, only a quarter of that is actually being recycled.
“Students are the management of the future; they can affect changes when they become management,” Caterina said. “I hope that people get inspired and that’s what I was hoping people would take away from these films.”
