MSU Students Win Glass Recycling Video Competition

A group of four Michigan State University (MSU) School of Packaging students are the winners of the Glass Packaging Institute's first-ever Recycle Glass Day YouTube video competition, according to a Dec. 8 press release.

The institute will present the winning team with $5,000 and the school with $5,000. The video will launch as a public service announcement on Recycle Glass Day (Dec. 10).

"This video really reinforces the message that each of us must do our part to make recycling happen," says Susan Selke, Ph.D., acting director, MSU School of Packaging. "Glass is truly 100 percent recyclable, but only if it is delivered into a system that allows recycling to occur."

The four winning students, Jonathon Beach (Edmore, Mich.), Stephen Gizicki (Canton, Mich.), Joshua Lobert (Blanchard, Mich.), and Adam Simon (Edmore, Mich.) — all packaging majors -- participated in the competition in a class led by packaging specialist and MSU professor, Dennis Young. Their winning video features stop-motion technology and its tagline is "Glass can't recycle itself." [Visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdT7idXzITE&e to view the video.]

More than 80 packaging sciences students from six universities—Cal Poly, Clemson University, Michigan State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, San Jose State University, and Stout University of Wisconsin—created videos to help build national awareness about the benefits of glass container recycling.

Judges for the video competition included Joseph Cattaneo, president of the Glass Packaging Institute; Conni Kunzler, recycling specialist and communications consultant for the Glass Packaging Institute; and Katherine Rowan, Ph.D., professor and associate chair of communication at George Mason University. The videos were judged on originality and creativity (50 percent); communicating the "glass message" (30 percent); and production technique and value (20 percent).

The Glass Packaging Institute is the trade association representing the North American glass container industry.