Big Belly is on the Way

By Griffin Nicholson

After a long process, we have finally sent a REQ form to The Green Initiative Fund for the Big Belly solar compactor we will be placing in Sunset Recreation. TGIF will now send Big Belly a purchase form for the compactor. We are expecting the compactor to arrive during week 9. We hope to get feedback from students and staff in the area after the compactor arrives.

In addition, we have continued to set up motion cameras at night to determine if rats are entering into trash cans from the open tops. While we have not found evidence of the rats entering from our preliminary findings, we have established a consistent schedule and system. We have found a raccoon investigating the trash can. We will continue to gain footage from the motion cameras to make a conclusion on why we are not seeing rats enter the trash cans.

Finally, we are going to begin investigating ways to prevent rats from chewing through irrigation lines on campus. After meeting with our stakeholder, Bonny Bentzin, we have decided to set out water in plastic containers to determine if the rats will drink the water present there and avoid chewing through the irrigation lines since they have an easier source of water. We intend to use or motion cameras to obtain evidence of whether the rats utilize the water in the plastic containers and as a form of evidence of the rats on campus. We are excited to start this new aspect of our project and for the impending arrival of our Big Belly solar compactor.