HCTC recycling campaign off to a good start

Stella Pollard, an Education major, of Grapevine, recycles a plastic bottle at Hazard Community and Technical College.

HCTC is seeing major results from its recycling efforts. In just roughly one semester s time period, the college has collected from its Hazard Campus, Technical Campus and Lees College Campus a total of 4,157 pounds of paper, 818 pounds of plastic, and 190 pounds of aluminum.

This was made possible by placing separate bins for those three items across the campuses of HCTC. In addition, last summer, 24 bins for plastic bottles and aluminum cans were placed externally on all campuses. These bins were provided by a successful grant application to Keep America Beautiful, a nationwide nonprofit group, in partnership with Coca Cola.

Student organizations are also reaping the benefits of the recycling program. Phi Theta Kappa and Skills USA sell the recycled aluminum as fundraisers for their clubs.

The recycling program has made our college community more aware of our impact upon the environment. We are proud of our accomplishments to date but there is always more to be done, noted Vickie Combs, Senior Director of Human Resources who is leading the project. We hope to continue expanding the program to involve more recycling efforts in the future.