The board of directors of the Environmental Research & Education Foundation awarded the 2017 Ice River Springs Master’s Scholarship for Sustainability to James Souder, a Master’s of Environmental Management candidate at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
Fully integrated from water source to the manufacturing of bottles, Ice River Springs is an Ontario-based company whose vision is to be the leading innovator in environmental sustainability and provide consumers with healthy beverages and products. Ice River Springs takes in large bales of used P.E.T. bottles from municipalities, sorts them, cleans them, makes them into food grade plastic pellets, then into preforms and finally into new bottles. The company then fills the bottles with fresh pristine spring, purified, distilled and now sparkling water. Ice River Springs is the only beverage company in North America with a plastics recycling facility and closed-loop production.
To qualify for this scholarship, students had to be enrolled full time in a master’s program in Canada or a U.S. academic institution located on the East Coast. The area of research should relate to recycling, with preference given to applicants exploring the recyclability of plastics, plastic bottles and/or PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic.
The bottling company first funded the Ice River Springs Master’s Scholarship for Sustainability in 2016. Last year’s recipient, Jillian Treadwell, a 2017 graduate of McGill University’s Department of Bioresource Engineering, explored how socio-economic factors and management strategies have impacted organic waste diversion rates across Europe and Canada, as well as the impact this diversion has had on phosphorus recycling.
This year’s recipient, James Souder, specializes in Industrial Ecology and Green Design with a deeper focus on innovative solutions to waste management and pollution prevention. His research, entitled “Closing the Loop and Increasing Material Recovery in Supply Chains and Production Systems,” seeks to divert recyclables from landfill and decrease consumer confusion regarding recycling information. Souder will embed recycling information on recyclable products using various strategies, such as UPC codes, QR codes, RFID tags and UV labels, with the intention of syncing these labels to a location-based recycling database. A small-scale automatic sorting machine could be installed on trash and recycling bins to scan items, helping to reduce human error and maximize diversion.
Prior to beginning his studies at Yale, Souder worked for three years on a variety of environmental initiatives ranging from spearheading food recovery programs to implementing city level climate action plan recommendations. During the summer of 2017, he interned with a venture capital firm that funds environmental clean tech startups. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Environmental and Social Sustainability from Eastern Mennonite University in 2013.
The EREF Scholarship Program awards and recognizes excellence in master’s and doctoral solid waste management research and education.
Published in the March 2018 Edition