UCSD Students Take on Hot Topic:
Styrofoam vs. Paper in Senior Seminar
on Sustainability Presentation Nov. 20

November 16, 2006

By Pat JaCoby

If you are interested in going “green,” which is better? Styrofoam or paper cups?

Students in a Senior Seminar on Sustainability at the University of California, San Diego will consider such quandaries when they make their final presentations at 3 p.m. Nov. 20 at the Eucalyptus Point Conference Center on the UCSD campus. The event is open to the public.

Junior and senior students have been researching two basic areas: Styrofoam vs. paper cups – which is recommended; and how UCSD students are educated about recycling and what improvements can be made in the process.

The students will discuss the merits and drawbacks of both paper and Styrofoam and offer data to support their suggested choice of product. They will present research on current recycling education at UCSD, suggestions for changes and estimated costs for these changes. Questions will be welcome and a reception immediately following the presentation will allow for informal conversations on the research and findings.

One of 19 senior seminars, the seminar on sustainability is taught by Charles Kennel, former director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) and currently head of UCSD’s Environment and Sustainability Initiative, and Lisa Shaffer, SIO director of Policy Programs and International Relations.

Contact: Pat JaCoby, (858) 534-7404