News Release — UVM
June 27, 2016
Contact:
Anju Krivov
anju.krivov@uvm.edu
Burlington, Vermont, 5/01/16–Joe Sinagra, Sustainability Director for Myers Containers, Waste & Recycle Management, announced a partnership being created between University of Vermont (UVM) “Waste to Energy – Community Development Applications” CDAE 195/295, taught by Dr. Krivov through UVM’s Community Development and Applied Economics Dept. (CDAE) in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS).
‘Waste to Energy’ course community partnership based projects with the Myers and the Casella Organics, will be further extended to the fall 2016 semester through CDAE 195/295 “Universal Recycling Law Community Connections” course. Secretary Chuck Ross, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets said, “Innovative technologies and state-wide partnerships are helping to creating new opportunities to transform organic waste into something useful. With the assistance of the Clean Energy Development Fund, Casella Organics and Grow Compost will test basic systems to grind food waste and use it in two on-farm biodigesters here in Vermont. The byproducts are electricity, heat, and all of the nutrients that farmers can use to grow crops.”
Two seniors enrolled in the Waste to Energy course, Natalie Lovelace and Leland King are working closely with Myers on a pilot study for service learning component of the course. Ms. Lovelace said, “The goal of the partnership is to study the best way to educate Vermonters about Universal Recycling Law, act 148”.
The proposed project as the students are designing it, is to compare education methods in two South Burlington neighborhoods. First a flyer was dropped at 100 homes in pinnacle area off Spear Street. They were directed to a web site that explained the program and how they can receive one of 20, 32-gallon totes to be picked up for free by Myers for one month. The outcome is to identify and the effectiveness of web based education.
The second neighborhood is South Village. Residents can take their organics to the village farm for no charge if they choose. They too received the 100 flyers, the web address, but also have additional personal communication with a student who is able to answer questions. Participants have the opportunity for one of the 20 free totes and free pickup for one month.
“We are pleased to see students engaging in efforts to solve our current waste challenges. Like the recycling efforts of the past several decades, recovering and recycling organics is critical to meeting waste reduction, resource conservation, and climate mitigation objectives.” said Cathy Jamieson, State of Vermont ANR/DEC Solid Waste Program Manager.
Student, King said, “our project is limited by time, so the results will be considered a pilot study. But this is the only study we know of that is being conducted on how Vermonters may respond to Act 148 when it becomes mandatory for individual households to redirect, reduce, reuse and recycle their waste. I’m pleased that the study we started will continue in next semesters via CDAE’s ‘Waste to Energy’ and Universal recycling Law courses”.
At the end of the month long study the students will tally the pre- and post- surveys and share their results with other waste haulers throughout the state of Vermont.
Mr. Sinagra said, “Myers containers is committed to finding the most cost effective way to pick up organics throughout Vermont”.
“We are pleased to learn the ‘Waste to Energy’ at UVM took off from Vermont Bioenergy Initiative supported ‘Biomass to Biofuels’ program also at UVM, a needed educational component for diversion of organics from landfills and reduction in fossil fuels consumption while using local renewable resources”, said Ellen Kahler, Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.
Class volunteer, Frank “Guyer” Geier said, “This is a uniquely designed course expected to bring an important community connection”. Natalie Lovelace said her goal is to “leave Vermont a better place by teaching Vermonters about Act 148.”
CDAE chairwoman, Professor Jane Kolodinsky, said, “this course ties together the transdisciplinary and applied mission of our department: developing and helping entrepreneurial companies such as Myers to meet the needs of their customers who must abide by new environmental policies, public communication as a tool to facilitate this, and building sustainable and resilient communities”.
Susan Munkres, Director, Community-University Partnerships & Service-Learning (CUPS) supporting the Waste to Energy Course said, “This course exemplifies service-learning at UVM: a strong partnership that brings benefits to a community partner and serving our broader communities, while providing important leadership and learning experiences for our students. Each year, approximately 2,000 UVM students work in the community through service-learning, contributing to the social good while learning important lessons in their field.”
Dr. Anju Krivov, the “Waste to Energy” course professor said “the project with Myers is one of several in our current Waste to Energy class. Other groups of students are working with Casella Waste Systems, Chittenden Solid waste District, and McNeil Power Plant. And a group is working on a Haiti project to create energy from food waste and charcoal originally started in Biomass to Biofuels class for bioenergy & byproducts for fossil fuel reduction. We will continue these projects in the following semesters as part of recurring and new courses including the fall 2016 “Universal Recycling Law Community Connections”.
For more information about ‘Waste to Energy course’ and the next semester course, “Universal Recycling Law Community Connections (3 credit CDAE 195/295 Fall 2016 semester) check details at: http://go.uvm.edu/7y1rr or email for more info at anju.krivov@uvm.edu. More information about the CDAE department can be found at www.uvm.edu/cdae
Read the story on VTDigger here: UVM Courses Partner with Waste Haulers to Implement Universal Recycling Law.