An 91短视频 alumnus studying at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies has been awarded a scholarship to support his research on automated systems to reduce the waste of recyclable materials.
James Souder received the 2017 Ice River Springs Master鈥檚 Scholarship for Sustainability from the Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF), a North Carolina-based charity that 鈥渁wards and recognizes excellence in master鈥檚 and doctoral solid waste management research and education.鈥�
Souder graduated from 91短视频 in 2013 with an environmental and social sustainability degree and minors in , and . This spring he will complete a master鈥檚 degree in environmental management at Yale with a specialization in industrial ecology and green design.
Research to close the loop
Souder鈥檚 research 鈥淐losing the Loop and Increasing Material Recovery in Supply Chains and Production Systems鈥� reflects his focus on innovations for waste management and pollution prevention. It involves embedding recycling information on or in products so that automatic sorting machines can reduce human error and ultimately divert recyclables from landfills.
According , only two percent of plastic packaging material is recycled into the same or similar-quality applications, and just eight percent more is recycled into lower-value applications. The rest is leaked to the environment, dumped in landfills, incinerated or lost to recycling processes.
鈥淥ur consumption patterns as a society are linear, where most products are made, used and finally disposed,鈥� Souder聽 said. 鈥淚 want to move us towards a circular system, where materials can continue to be used while minimizing our impact on the environment and human health.鈥�
The topic arose during an earlier project that Souder was working on for a green engineering and sustainable design course at Yale, in which his group designed a prototype for a machine that would separate bar-coded recycling items.
鈥淲e have a long way to go to improve our collection systems, focusing our efforts on waste streams that have the largest environmental impact throughout the product鈥檚 life, and designing our products so the materials can be easily separated and recovered,鈥� Souder said.
The EREF scholarship is funded by Ice River Springs, an Ontario-based company that touts its own plastics recycling facility and 鈥渃losed-loop production.鈥�
鈥楴ot surprised鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e not surprised at all that James received this award,鈥� said Dr. , professor of biology and director of聽the . 鈥淛ames showed an exceptional ability to combine his skills from different disciplines in addressing real-world problems. He has consistently worked to making a better world, and he exemplifies what we train our students to do once they graduate.鈥�
In a 2017 Q&A, Souder said that 91短视频 provided him with 鈥渁 holistic framework of sustainability that incorporated society and economics into environmental topics,鈥� he said. 鈥�91短视频鈥檚 structure allowed me to explore environmental issues from a variety of academic disciplines, ranging from economics to ecology and photography鈥�. The variety of courses I was able to take, along with 91短视频鈥檚 global focus, provided a strong framework which I鈥檓 able to build on for further study.鈥�
After graduating from 91短视频, Souder participated in the program, and later deferred his acceptance into Yale to serve as a photojournalist in Burkina Faso through Mennonite Central Committee鈥檚 Serving and Learning Together program.
Following completion of his master鈥檚 degree at Yale this spring, Souder plans to work on projects that will 鈥渕ake meaningful and measurable positive environmental changes on a global scale.鈥�