A campaign in favour of ‘Green Trashing’ – a more environmentally friendly variety of the post-exam tradition – is to be launched next term.
The campaign, which will be run by three college Environment & Ethics reps, will aim to encourage students to have trashings with as little adverse environmental impact as possible.
Harry Holmes, JCR E&E rep at St Catz, and head of the Green Trashing campaign, told The Oxford Student that a particular concern was “the use of glitter, plastics and other environmentally impacting products as each trashing seeks to exceed the one before”.
He added that “there are impacts from many colleges where it is traditional to leap into waterways in Oxford and contaminate these areas with plastics and chemicals.”
Trashing normally involves those who have finished their final exam being sprayed by their friends with products such as shaving foam, glitter, silly string, and even champagne.
The campaign, Holmes said, will offer “college wide information provision” and be active on social media.
A team is to investigate “the impact of common trashing products” with the aim of highlighting the most environmentally friendly.
In addition, he said, the campaign aims to purchase and distribute biodegradable alternatives – they propose flower petals, for instance, as a substitute for confetti.
Alternatives, however, cannot be found for all items commonly used in trashings: Holmes said that there are few subtitutes for “more complex products” such as cannons and poppers, and recommended using champagne and other eco-friendly alternatives instead.
The campaign plans to release documents listing trashing products and possible alternatives in the coming weeks.
