KSU wins grant, starts recycling

By Melody Gustafson
EAST LIVERPOOL – The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has provided a $10,000 grant to Kent’s two Columbiana County campuses to implement a recycling program.

Combined with a matching $2,500 from each campus, the program titled “Today Recycle At Columbiana Kent State” (T.R.A.C.K.S.), will curtail the amount of rubbish produced, which exceeds 32 tons per year, according to Henry Trenkelbach, business manager in Salem and East Liverpool.

Former Assistant Dean Richard Wiscott initiated the effort by writing and submitting the request for the grant, not many of which are awarded, said Trenkelbach. The agreement between KSU and ODNR, called “2008 College and University Recycling and Waste Reduction Program,” crossed the desk of Director Sean Logan, who is also head of the Division of Recycling and Litter Prevention.

This effort will accomplish three other goals in addition to the obvious environmental benefit: increase awareness of the rewards of recycling to a campus, community and environment; establish recycling centers; and save the cost of waste disposal.

The program will be able to trim the price of disposal by reducing the amount of trash bags the university must purchase and sheer labor hours spent on collection of the larger amount. Trenkelbach hopes to lessen the number of dumpster pickups from three times to once per week. Cardboard, glass, plastic, and mixed paper are the materials that everyone will dispose of in the appropriate containers once the purchased bins arrive.

A serious recycler, Trenkelbach plans to recycle as much material as possible during the course of the campus’s other projects, including the parking lot and sidewalk on Broadway.

“I will tear bricks up myself to ensure that they are recycled” he said.