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NSCC Students Raise Recycling Awareness With Dumpster Dive





Recyclable materials are sorted from five days worth of trash at Northwest State Community College as part of a

Recyclable materials are sorted from five days worth of trash at Northwest State Community College as part of a “dumpster dive” conducted by the student group Students for Sustainability, or S4S. Among the items pulled from the trash were 18 pounds of aluminum. The event was held Tuesday, Feb. 24. – courtesy photo

Students at Northwest State Community College were busy going through the garbage Tuesday, Feb. 24.

In a way, they were looking for a form of treasure- materials that could be saved from a landfill and recycled.

Brian Heil, president of the campus group Students For Sustainability, or S4S, said they dumped five days worth of trash on the NSCC atrium floor and sorted out all of the things that could be recycled.

What they found was surprising.

“Colin Dolittle, an instructor in plastics, estimated there was enough plastic thrown away- it represented about two or three barrels of crude oil. An entire week of trash would be six barrels.

“We had 18 pounds of aluminum,” he said.

Heil said much of the garbage from NSCC is food packaging and food waste. S4S is working on starting a composting program; composting could cut the amount of garbage NSCC throws away, the “waste stream,” by 40%.

The goal of the project was to help raise awareness of recycling.

Why Recycle

Justin Gainor, a student and S4S member, gave a couple of reasons why recycling is important.

First, the earth has a finite amount of resources; mining for aluminum ore or drilling for oil consumes those resources and consumes energy.

Second, the process of manufacturing products from raw materials consumes additional energy and creates its own pollution problem.

For example, “The process of producing aluminum is incredibly poisonous,” Gainor said.

Making new aluminum cans from old ones simply involves melting the material and recasting it, which is much less damaging to the environment.

Also, recycling cuts the amount of garbage going into landfills, extending their useful lives and postponing the need for new landfills.

Power Shift

Heil and Gainor were interviewed by cellular phone Monday night, as they and other NSCC students were returning by train from Power Shift 09, a global warming and energy solution conference held in Washington D.C.

NSCC students were among 12,000 students and young people who attended from all 50 states, Heil said.

During the four-day event, about 6,000 students rallied at the U.S. Capitol building. The students met with Bob Latta, US representative (R-Bowling Green); Sherrod Brown, U.S. Senator (D-Ohio); and a representative of George Voinovich U.S. Senator (R-Ohio). Heil said they lobbied the men on climate change issues.

He stressed the importance of the climate change issue, because the decisions the U.S. Congress makes today “affects our future, your future, your kids’ future, your grandkids’ future.”

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