Sierra Kuun Awarded the Margaret Chase Smith Public Affairs Scholarship
UMaine rising senior Sierra Kuun has been awarded the 2016-17 Margaret Chase Smith Public Affairs Scholarship for work she has been doing as an intern at the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions as part of the Materials Management team. A chemical engineering major, last semester Kuun had the opportunity to engage with stakeholders with different areas of expertise, including citizens, solid waste professionals, communities, engineers, policy makers, and scientists to tackle the state of Maine’s current solid waste issues.
“We have developed a list of goals on how to tackle the problem of organic waste in Maine through increasing awareness of the benefits of composting, reaching out to organizations involved in food production and processing, and connecting them to organizations who specialize in managing food waste, and participating in community events,” Kuun says. “Recently, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Maine Science Festival, where we spoke to over one hundred kids about how to sort recyclable materials from trash and the environmental benefits of composting.”
The scholarship involves working with faculty advisors in conducting research. Kuun’s faculty advisors includes Travis Blackmer of the School of Economics (who leads the Materials Management team), UMaine Resource Recovery, and staff of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center. Her project will focus on waste reduction through implementing a pilot program at UMaine that will give students living in campus apartments the opportunity to divert food scraps and compost and have them converted into compost that is used around campus.
“We will be providing the students with containers to collect their food scraps and ask them to record their food scraps on a weekly basis. The data collected will be used to encourage the school to implement a more permanent program to handle food waste, learn how to encourage students to compost, and provide justification for further policy regarding food scraps,” Kuun notes.