Recycle at ALF to help the planet

The Clarion Area Chamber of Business and Industry announces the addition of recycling bins to be set up for use during the 69th annual Autumn Leaf Festival.

The Western Pennsylvania Society of Conservation Biology (WPASCB), a group of 20 students and their advisor, Dr. Andrew Keth, at PennWest Clarion University have decided to take action in the community all while working to make the planet a healthier place.

As stated in the name, WPASCB focuses on the conservation of the planet and its diverse species. The society is most known for its work in caring for Eastern Box Turtles, a Pennsylvania species of special concern, for numerous years now.

In addition to the turtle care project, the club has organized trash cleanups in the community, led trail maintenance jobs on campus property, hosted informative talks about animal species all around the world, and always works to spread knowledge about what conservation is and what you can do to help the planet and its wildlife.

With the work that has been accomplished in the past, the new president of WPASCB, Gage Gray, has decided to bring the club’s work and efforts to the community. The 20 members who make up WPASCB and their advisor have teamed up with the CACBI to help conserve the area during one of its biggest events, the Autumn Leaf Festival.

Gray reached out to CACBI Executive Director, Tracy Becker, in order to come up with a plan to set up recycling bins at the large community event. Becker, along with Event Coordinator, Tammy LaCross were very excited and welcoming to the idea that Gray and the members of WPASCB had brought to them.

Becker told Gray they had always wanted to set up some sort of recycling containers during large community events, but they never had the resources or the proper plan in place in order to do that.

So, the members of WPASCB began their first project of the semester to come up with an effective way to get people in the community to recycle when at events as large as ALF.

After the club had met, Gray reported back to Becker with a plan. WPASCB has decided to supply the community with eight recycling containers, four blue and four red.

The different colors of these recycling containers are to indicate what recyclable materials can be placed in them. The four blue recycling bins will be designated for metal objects such as aluminum cans or aluminum foil while the four red containers will be designated for plastics.

One important thing to remember when recycling is to make sure that any liquid or food contents are removed from the metal and plastic containers. If there are large amounts of remnants left within the metals and plastics, then it could cause cross contamination which could lead to having to dispose of the entire bag of recycled materials.

To make things easy to see at community events, WPASCB and the chamber will work together to place these eight containers throughout the area of the event and make sure they are properly marked with the common triangle recycling symbol.

Autumn Leaf Festival is the first event where we will see the chamber working with WPASCB to set up these recycling bins. Both parties have hopes to grow these efforts and add more containers in the years to come.