Joanna AshfordEach year, the University of Kentucky celebrates America Recycles Day on Nov. 15 by encouraging faculty, staff and students to recycle and learn more about recycling on campus. Following last year’s eye-opening cardboard demonstration, UK Recycling has created another recycling display.
Made from Styrofoam coolers used by UK HealthCare, the “wave” will be on display through Nov. 19 at the Gatton Student Center. UK College of Design’s Jordan Hines created the display using 72 coolers.
“When plastics aren’t disposed of properly, or fall on the ground, it will enter our water ways, where it breaks down into smaller pieces creating microplastics. Microplastics are almost impossible to remove from the waterways and hard to see with the naked eye. The UK community can help stop this problem by reducing their use of single use plastic and making sure to dispose properly any plastic items that we do have,” said Esther Moberly, manager of waste, recycling and trucking at UK.
The specialty Styrofoam recycling program, started by former recycling intern Sophie Beavin in 2019, allows Styrofoam coolers and molded Styrofoam packaging to now be recycled on campus. Styrofoam is sent to a local recycling facility that either resells the coolers or breaks the Styrofoam down to recycle them into new coolers or packaging.
