Enviva Materials

Students learn through tire-recycling project

Jamie Musick
The Meadville Tribune
4.9.07

If you dream it, they will come. One by one and stack by stack, a vision of a few became the reality of hundreds. What started out as piles of environmental concerns diminished into bins of crumbs - thanks to several muddy hands and motivated minds behind a big cause.

A senior project initiated by four students and a teacher last spring developed into an interactive learning experience for 200 high school students. Maplewood High School senior Nathan Renaudin and his biology teacher, Jason Drake, initiated a community effort with seniors Samantha Taylor, Kevin Sawatsky and Case Kunick.

Last October, Maplewood and Saegertown high school students put on their gloves and boots to move massive piles of tires from Bossard's Salvage Yard in Townville to a tire recycling plant in Youngstown, Ohio. According to Drake, a 2003 recipient of the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award, students carefully sorted and loaded an estimated 6,000 tires in four semi-trailers to be recycled at Enviva Materials LLC, an Ashland, Va.-based materials recovery and processing company that has been in Youngstown for nearly a year.

Maplewood was one of 21 schools in the nation to receive a grant from the Milken Family Foundation to finance the community project, said Drake. He added that Enviva provided hauling and recycling services, as well as sending a representative to teach students techniques on moving and storing tires.

The purpose of the Milken Family Foundation is to discover and advance inventive and effective ways of helping people help themselves and those around them lead productive and satisfying lives. The foundation advances this mission primarily through its work in education and medical research.

"I wanted to do something that was a help to our community, myself and the school," said Renaudin. "I knew it would be a lot of work, but I wanted to take on the challenge and help. It (Bossard's) was my best friend's father's car dump and helping them out made me feel great."

After two-and-a-half hours and more than 1,000 tires per semi-trailer, the collaborative effort was a success. But it didn't stop there.

A few weeks ago, Maplewood students traveled to Enviva, which collects thousands of tires each year, for a first-hand lesson on how the tires are recycled. After touring the plant, students saw how those enormous piles of tires can be processed into tiny pieces of rubber, creating many products, such as office supplies, mulch and floor mats.

"Science is not a textbook in four walls," Drake said. "We have to do a better job in giving the students the hands-on opportunities. We teach them about the issue. The students found a solution by applying what they've learned. Enviva then shows them the final step. They got to put their hands in the bins to feel the crumbs of rubber."

However, Renaudin never imagined the project would spark such a huge interest. "I've always heard people say that one person can make a difference," said Renaudin, who plans to attend Clarion University next fall to major in communications and minor in ecology. I never really took it seriously. When I saw the repercussions of the project, I saw you really can be a help and that you can do something really great."

The project has a lasting effect, according to Jeff Webb, business manager of Enviva. "We want the students to embrace the environmental initiative by their teacher (Jason Drake)," he said. "We want to show them the professionalism of companies like these and expose them to some potential careers. If we're not a field they're interested in, we still like the exposure to help make them better citizens in the environment."

"I didn't know so many products could come from recycled tires," said Taylor, who plans to major in biology at Penn State Behrend in Erie next fall. "The plant wasn't as big as I thought it'd be, but there are so many different stages (to recycle). We got to touch the products and the crumb rubber felt really cool. I'd really love to come back and help next year."

"We'd like to have involvement with other schools too," said Webb. "I think what Jason (Drake) is doing is unique and serves as a model for what motivated students and leaders can accomplish. We're already talking about the project for next year."

"They're very proud that they came up with a solution for a community environmental project," Drake said. "If you provide an avenue for kids to do something, they will. I'd like to see schools across the nation at the high school and collegiate level start to implement these types of projects. The students like the concept of applying the science they've learned. They're aware that by getting rid of tires, it makes Crawford County a better place."