Edna Baehre, Ph.D., president of HACC—Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, Douglas Neidich, CEO of Powers & Associates, and Kimberly Hummel, chair of the Society of Women Environmental Professionals (Capital Chapter) will take part in The Trash Challenge where they get to carry around the trash they generate over a week to dramatize the environmental impact of garbage.

Beginning February 22, these local leaders will not only find out how much garbage they generate, they will carry it with them everywhere they go for an entire week.

The Trash Challenge is the brainchild of the Society of Women Environmental Professionals who is testing the amount of garbage produced by individuals in a one-week time period.

While the national average is 4.5 pounds of garbage per day, a final weigh-in for participants will be held at HACC’s Midtown Campus at 10 a.m. February 29, to see how Central Pennsylvania fares.

Participants will then report on their challenges at SWEP’s Making Environmental Connections Conference on March 6 at HACC’s Wildwood Conference Center.

Denise Brinley, SWEP Program Chair, explains further, "The idea of the Trash Challenge is to get citizens and students engaged and thinking about how much waste they actually generate. What better way for people need to understand what a difference waste reduction, recycling, and composting can make than to carry your trash around with you?" Brinley added, "Reducing the amount of waste you generate is one simple way to contribute to a cleaner environment. If our project helps just one person send less waste to a landfill, then we'll feel like we have done our job."

Baehre, Neidich and Hummel, along with students in HACC’s environmental program, will be required to collect and carry with them all waste produced at their workplaces and in their homes, with the exception of things that will be reused, composted or recycled. In other words, the less garbage that goes in the recycle bin or reused, the more garbage they will be carrying with them during the challenge week.

Every participant in the Trash Challenge will quickly discover the consequences of their habits.

For more information, visit the Trash Challenge webpage or call 717-705-4921.

2/22/2008