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Green choked the streets. The thick scent of stale ale and cigarette smoke clung firmly in the early morning air. Ropes of semiconscious students snaked around Murphy’s Pub and Legends while an orchestra of shouting, singing and sirens played in the background. Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day had officially begun on Green Street. But members of Community Organized Recycling Efforts (CORE) saw Green Street losing its green on this holiday.

CORE focused on the glittering cans of Keystone scattered along Green Street and the lists of homes that signed up for their recycling service. CORE Campus Clean-Up is one of many events that this environmental group has installed in the campus community in the effort to improve the access and awareness of recycling.

“It was the first time that our group was operating like a unit,” said CORE’s co-director Aaron Pollack.

Through the power of community outreach and the group’s organizational skills, CORE recruited 40 volunteers from seven campus groups to collect the recyclables produced from Unofficial. The event generated over 362 pounds of aluminum as well as a community response that proved the group’s credibility.

Carl Newman, a junior in the College of Business, said he was impressed by CORE’s ability to organize with limited time and advertising.

Newman became a CORE member after moving to an apartment in Champaign where recycling is not offered. Even though he found a way to recycle, he knew he was unique.

“Most people don’t want or aren’t willing to take the effort to recycle,” he said. “It is a substantial inconvenience, especially for people used to an easy, leave-it-at-the-curb system.”

This is one of the many problems that CORE has tried to solve since its creation in spring 2006.

As the need for recycling became more apparent, CORE, originally a small committee within Students for Environmental Concerns, branched into its own organization to focus its efforts toward recycling alone.

Simultaneously, Pollack moved to Champaign to start graduate school. As a California native, he was astonished by the backwardness of Champaign’s waste management system. He quickly joined forces with SECS and fellow co-director Cassie Carroll.

Though past efforts had failed, Pollack attacked the problem from a business perspective.

“If you’re going to bring recycling to a community that doesn’t have it, it’s going to take more than a petition,” he said.

Unlike other environmental groups, the idea is not to force people to have a passion for environmental issues but to unite the community in greening efforts under one vision or, as CORE calls it, “community brand.”

“We can’t change their passion, we just need them to adopt simple behaviors to make their lives more green,” said senior project leader Mara Eisenstein.

CORE knows how to motivate people to change their habits.

“The way to increase participation of community members and businesses is through recycling programs, which provide incentives and motivation to recycle,” Carroll said.

Greening Green Street is one of CORE’s newest programs created to achieve this goal.

CORE received a grant from Blue Illinois to create a plan for a green business certification program. The program would certify local stores, restaurants and bars as “green businesses” based on a list of criteria. In turn, businesses would become more energy- and cost-efficient in addition to being recognized as environmental leaders.

“We want to encourage and make it easier for businesses to take opportunities to be environmentally friendly and to show them the benefits,” said Eisenstein.

Though the project is currently in the early planning stage, the group hopes to launch it within the next two years. However, student turnover jeopardizes the success of the event and the organization as a whole.

Pollack said that many graduating members are upset that they have to leave their projects unfinished with only the hope that they will succeed. He explained how a funded program or department would give credibility and promote the growth of CORE by keeping the experienced members.

“We love our projects. We love what we are doing. We love where the group is headed. Why stop it?” Eisenstein said.

Since currently no such program exists, the leaders of CORE are putting their faith in the community.

“CORE has to become bigger than students,” said Pollack. “As soon as it becomes integral to the community, it will receive the momentum to truly succeed.”