The Students Promoting Acts of Recycling at Kutztown (SPARK) is starting off the academic year with enhanced programs.

In the residence halls on campus, single-stream recycling has started. Now all recyclable materials can be recycled in the same bin, according to Patricia Gross, the secretary of SPARK. She hopes that this initiative will motivate more people to recycle on campus.

While items such as plastic, cardboard and paper can go in the same bin, food and Styrofoam are not able to be recycled.

They also have touch screen televisions in the residence halls and one in South Dining Hall called Energy Dashboards. These dashboards are linked to an outside website and tell details such as the weather outside or the amount of energy the university is using.

Gross said that SPARK is “having a lot of support from Housing.” Now, every Residence Hall Council has a Sustainability Representative, who puts forward green initiatives to the entire hall and attends SPARK meetings.

Gross said that they are promoting recycling this year and they are getting strong support. They had clubs ask them how to get recycling bins.
“We’re really getting our name out there,” she said.

SPARK will hold its first meeting Thursday, Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. in the Dixon Conference Room.

By Emily Leayman