At the University of Guam’s Green Night event, the Center for Island Sustainability team highlighted the fun side of the circular economy loop with an activity that featured repurposing discarded materials and green waste into a creative fabric.  

The College of Natural & Applied Sciences hosted Green Night on Wednesday, April 20, in celebration of the University’s 50 years as a land-grant institution.  

The UOG CIS, Sea Grant, and EPSCoR teams shared information about the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals and distributed SDG stickers and the latest Sea Grant tide chart calendar.  

At the event, CHamoru artist and Makerspace and Innovation Hub staff Joey Certeza demonstrated the textile printing process using an old blanket, paint, and leaves. Four distinct types of leaves were collected from the green waste pile at the CNAS garden for their distinct pattern — the lemmai (breadfruit), kåhlao (a type of fern), laguanå (soursop), and kaffo’ (a type of pandanus). 

“We are textile printing with nature. We have collected four different leaves in our House 2 garden. We want the community to be involved in textile printing so we at Guam Green Growth can upcycle the fabric into different products that you will be able to purchase at the G3 Makerspace and Innovation Hub at the Chamoru Village,” Certeza said. 

Myracle Mugol, Guam Green Growth circular economy coordinator added, “Whatever design we make we are going to turn it into a tote bag, pouches or any other product at the Makerspace and Innovation Hub. The proceeds (from the products) will support the Center for Island Sustainability.” 

 The circular economy closes the loop by prolonging the product life cycle and finding another purpose for waste that would otherwise end up in the landfill. Doing so keeps materials in use and, eventually, lessens the burden on natural resources and regenerates natural systems.   

The Green Night event also featured food trucks, a farm animal petting zoo, after-hours yoga, cycad garden tours, snake wrangling, local produce and craft sales, plant sales, giveaways, and a glow-in-the-dark family fun run/walk.