All year round, Eastern bleeds blue, but for one week it bleeds green.

For the last few years, Eastern has boasted its going green mentality and on April 18 to 22 the student government will be inviting students and community members to continue the green legacy.

Gary Reed is the director of Facilities Planning and Management.

“Our energy conservation is the best in the state, and compared to other campuses our size, we’re one of the best in the entire country,” Reed said.

Eastern students and Charleston residents will have the chance to get involved in recycling waste material on the Earth Day.

The residence halls, the Environmental Awareness Committee and local recycling businesses such as eRecycling will be sponsoring the Earth Week events.

Student Senate member Zach Samples is the chair of student government’s university development and recycling committee and is in charge of planning the environmentally conscious week.

“Earth Day is to promote only green-related issues during the week of April 18 to 22,” said Samples, a freshman history major.

Registered student organizations, Greek organizations and hall councils will be meeting 10 a.m. to noon, as well as 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Library Quad.

Samples would like donations to include glass, plastics, light bulbs, torn linens and small electronics.

Ryan Siegel, the campus energy and sustainability coordinator, said Earth Week is a way to keep things interesting and fun for students who want to stay involved in helping Eastern stay green.

There will be a “Dumpster Dive” event on April 21 where students will help gather thrown away items that could have been recycled.

Interested students are asked to go to a dumpster on campus and sort the materials that are able to be recycled, Siegel said.

The materials deemed not contaminated will be given to three different vendors CCAR Industries, Veolia Environmental Services and the Neil Armstrong Center all located in the Charleston and Mattoon area.

Students and local businesses will be teaming up to recycle a variety of materials on Earth Day for the Charleston community.

Every RSO that brings in at least one pound of recycled materials will receive one point toward the annual Earth Day Competition taking place during the week.

At the end of the week, the student group with the most points will receive an award. Then, the RSO will be noticed for its donation and will be announced as the “Green Organization of the Year.”

Eastern established its recycling program in 1992.

According to the GreenEIU webpage, Eastern students as well as the faculty and staff, helped donate 32 percent of on-campus waste, weighing up to 1 million pounds of waste material.

Student’s involved will be challenged to promote recycling throughout the campus during Green Week as well as after.

Siegel also said they will be planting a tree in honor of Earth Day with all the donations going toward planting the selected tree.

“The donated money goes toward a plaque that is placed at the base of the tree, and to assist in the cost of labor in planting the tree because the grounds workers must be present at the planting,” Siegel said.

According to the student government bylaws, the student government may not plant a tree without a proper plaque for the area where they plant it.

The location of the tree planting has not yet been determined, Siegel said.

“Anybody interested is able to attend Monday through Wednesday and on Thursday, and the donations will conclude on Friday,” Siegel said.

Dominick Polito can be reached at 581-2812 or drpolito@eiu.edu.