Earth Day Impact
Engineering Students, Businesses Collaborate on Recycling Project
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, celebrated Earth Day 2009 with the help of two engineering students, two area businesses, 500 Frisbees—made of 100 percent recycled materials, and 500 water bottles.
On Wednesday, April 22, Penn State Behrend hosted a lunchtime Earth Day program on the second floor of Reed Union Building outside Bruno’s Café.
Nicole Cocuzzi and Jenna Haschets, junior plastics engineering technology students, helped to coordinate the event along with Ann Quinn, lecturer in biology and member of the college’s Greener Behrend Task Force. Cocuzzi and Haschets distributed green—literally, the color green—Frisbees, which they produced from recycled pet food bags that otherwise would have been thrown away, while Engineered Plastics, Inc. (EPI) supplied and distributed the water bottles.
Featured guests included Kurt Duska, president of EPI, an event sponsor, a spokesperson for Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-3), and the Bucket Brigade, among others. The Bucket Brigade is a collaborative, “green”-oriented organization that includes student volunteers from the area’s four colleges and universities—Penn State Behrend, Edinboro University, Gannon University and Mercyhurst College. Bucket Brigade benefits Habitat for Humanity, Earth Force, Lake Erie Region Conservancy and the Pennsylvania Lake Erie Watershed Association.
Penn State Behrend’s Housing and Food Services and the Greener Behrend Task Force also contributed to the 2009 Earth Day event.
An Economically-Sustainable Effort
Penn State Behrend’s Earth Day event developed out of a broader recycling effort. In 2008, EPI received a $500,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to purchase state-of-the-art recycling equipment.
“For recycling to work, it has to be economically sustainable,” Duska said. “We are using our skills and technology, coupled with the skills and support of area resources, to help fix a huge national problem. We’ve learned that one company can make a major impact.” Throughout the process, EPI has worked with Penn State Behrend and Gannon’s Small Business Development Center.
EPI has since agreed to sponsor a senior project at Penn State Behrend; Cocuzzi and Haschets were matched to the project. The two women will be employed as interns at EPI this summer, gaining on-the-job experience while conducting research for their senior project.
Ultimately, the goal of their senior project and EPI’s objective is to create a demand for recycled materials so more companies will opt to use them.
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, is a comprehensive residential college offering 34 bachelor’s, six associate, four pre-professional and two graduate degree programs with 22 minors to more than 4,600 students. Focused on providing a student-centered environment, Penn State Behrend connects its students to a major research and land-grant institution on a campus enriched by more than 110 clubs and organizations, 21 NCAA varsity teams and 19 intramural sports. Penn State Behrend is named in recognition of a donation by Mary Behrend, widow of Ernst Behrend, who founded the Hammermill Paper Co. in Erie in 1898. The Behrend family lived on the 400-acre Glenhill Farm, which is the core of the Penn State Behrend campus today. For more information, visit behrend.psu.edu.