Pollution Prevention Works: A Storytelling Challenge for Students, 2023 Winners
In September 2022, EPA launched a challenge promoting innovation in pollution prevention at industrial and federal facilities. The Challenge invited high school and college students to use the TRI P2 Search Tool to identify a TRI facility that has reported implementing source reduction practices and tell a compelling story about how those practices or techniques benefit the business and positively impact communities and the environment. EPA thanks the nearly 60 participants from across the country for their entries.
Students presented their stories as essays, infographics, videos and a newspaper article and used information reported to TRI as well as other data to describe P2 activities implemented by facilities and the resulting positive impacts. Click on a location in the map above to jump to that winner's profile, or use the filters below to see relevant winner profiles. Location is based on the address of the student's school.
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Shreya Daggolu - Stuyvesant High School
Shreya Daggolu, a student at Stuyvesant High School, created a video that focuses on the Ravenswood Generating Station in Long Island City, New York. The video details efforts to reduce toxic chemical emissions at the facility and improve the health of the 1.2 million people who live within three miles of the plant - including many low-income and minority residents.
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Annaliese Persaud, Francisco Suriel, Jasmin Tiong-Smith, Samaya Lindo-Smellie, and Jordyn Faria - Baldwin High School
Annaliese Persaud, Francisco Suriel, Jasmin Tiong-Smith, Samaya Lindo-Smellie, and Jordyn Faria from Baldwin High School created a mock newscast that highlights P2 practices implemented at the Ravenswood Generating Station in Long Island City, New York. In the video, a mock news reporter interviews students playing a host of characters including local residents and a scientist about how the P2 improvements positively impacted the public and environmental health in nearby neighborhoods.
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Athitiya Singhapan - Michael E. Debakey High School for Health Professions
Athitiya Singhapan, a student at Michael E. Debakey High School for Health Professions, created a video that illustrates P2 practices implemented at the Danone Milk Manufacturing Facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The video explains how Danone reduced its nitric acid releases, benefiting local communities.
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Noah Arbuckle - Lincoln Academy
Noah Arbuckle, a student at Lincoln Academy, created a video that features semiconductor manufacturing company GlobalFoundries and the P2 activities implemented at its facility in Essex Junction, Vermont. The video describes activities to reduce releases of chemicals on the TRI list including ethylene glycol, fluorine, hydrochloric acid and ammonia, resulting in reduced impacts on the environment, especially on local waterways.
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Tahmina Emu - Fairfield University
Tahmina Emu, a student at Fairfield University, wrote an essay that focuses on Times Microwave Systems Inc., a communication and energy wire manufacturer in Wallingford, Connecticut. Tahmina’s essay describes P2 strategies implemented from 2015 to 2021 including improved material containment and handling operations to decrease its copper waste generation. The essay also highlights other sustainable efforts such as energy-efficiency lighting and recycling programs to demonstrate commitment to environmental responsibility in the region.
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Angela Zhan - Logan High School
Angela Zhan, a student at Logan High School, wrote an essay that focuses on the efforts of TTM Technologies, a printed circuit board manufacturer, to reduce nitrate pollution. Angela visited TTM in Logan, Utah and spoke with TTM employees about their P2 practices including switching to less toxic chemicals, improving maintenance and increasing reuse of nitric acid. The essay also highlights TTM’s commitment to continuous improvement.
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Kelvin Zhang - North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
Kelvin Zhang, a student at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, created a one-pager that explains P2 activities at the Pressure Chemical Co., in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Using a poster-style format, Kelvin explains how the manufacturer improved maintenance scheduling and optimized reaction conditions to reduce releases of methanol, toluene, and n-Hexane. Efficiencies also resulted in increased recycling and improved the company’s relationship with surrounding community.
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Diane Frola – Christopher Newport University
Diane Frola, a student at Christopher Newport University, wrote an article for a mock newspaper, called “The EPA Gazette,” that highlights Empire Kosher Poultry Inc. a company base in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania. The article describes how chlorine can be harmful to the environment and how the company eliminated the use of chlorine in its wastewater treatment facility by installing an ultraviolet (UV) light system in 2015, reducing releases from 3,000-5,000 pounds of chlorine per year to 0 pounds.
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Fatou Mbaye - North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Fatou Mbaye, a student at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, created a one-pager that focuses on Vibram Corp., a footwear manufacturer in North Brookfield, Massachusetts. The document describes how Vibram Corp manages zinc used in the production of rubber soles and implemented P2 practices including replacing equipment to increase production efficiency and reduce releases of zinc to the environment.
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Nirja Trivedi - Westview High School
Nirja Trivedi, a student at Westview High School, wrote an essay featuring the U.S. Naval Base San Diego. The essay describes sources of lead waste including lead-acid batteries used for emergency power in naval aircraft and efforts to reduce the amount of lead waste from 2018 to 2021. Nirja also describes the commitment of the base to detect environmental pollution and more actively engage with the Portside community to protect health and raise awareness of its actions.
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Calla Shosh - Natrona County High School
Calla Shosh, a student at Natrona County High School, created an infographic on pollution prevention activities implemented at Mondi Jackson LLC, a commercial gravure printing facility in Missouri. The infographic summarizes how the facility discontinued the use of copper cylinders in its printing process. Calla also describes the company’s efforts to recycle its copper waste and the overall environmental benefits of reduced copper releases.
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Aditi Adapala - Lynbrook High School
Aditi Adapala, a student at Lynbrook High School, wrote an essay about P2 practices implemented between 2013 and 2021 at Danco Anodizing, an electroplating, plating, polishing, anodizing, and coloring facility, in Ontario, California. Aditi describes how improvements in cleaning and degreasing machinery led to greater efficiencies and decreased waste of nitric acid and nitrate compounds, benefitting the community around the plant.
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Joseph Bartash – Samueli Academy
Joseph Bartash, a high school student from Samueli Academy, created a video that highlights Fabri Cote, a textile company, in Los Angeles, California. The video describes P2 practices implemented including changes in the production schedule to reduce use of toluene during the manufacture of rubber-coated fabrics. The video also discusses increased recycling of toluene waste generated at the plant, the public health and environmental effects of toluene, and benefits of the reductions.
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Miranda Moreno, Stefany Duran Rios, Jesus Moreno, Vanessa Martinez, and Carolina Naranjo - Garey High School
Miranda Moreno, Stefany Duran Rios, Jesus Moreno, Vanessa Martinez, and Carolina Naranjo, students at Garey High School, created a video that highlights Jackson Dairy in Hutchinson, Kansas. The video describes the harmful impacts of ammonia and the company's actions to eliminate ammonia releases, including by installing new equipment in 2007.
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Arun Sood – Georgetown University
Arun Sood, a student at Georgetown University, created an infographic that highlights AMETEK, a manufacturer of electronic instruments and devices, in San Diego, California. The infographic explains how AMETEK purchased lead-free soldering equipment, instituted lead-free manufacturing processes to reduce releases and increased lead recycling between 2017 and 2021. The infographic also describes why lead is harmful to the environment and AMETEK’s efforts to engage with communities.
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Arin Harkawat - Watchung Hills Regional High School
Arin Harkawat, a student at Watchung Hills Regional High School, created a video and an essay about a poultry plant in Natchitoches, Louisiana, owned by Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. Arin highlights the company’s P2 efforts, specifically monitoring of the production line and consistent tracking of orders, which led to complete elimination of ammonia releases in 2021. Arin also notes the company’s commitment to invest in more emissions-reductions projects to benefit the surround community.
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Charlotte Walton - Lloyd C. Bird High School
Charlotte Walton, a student at Lloyd C. Bird High School, created an infographic that profiles the P2 practices implemented by Prysmian Cables and Systems, LLC., a company that produces cables and other telecommunications materials, in Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania. Charlotte’s infographic details how the company switched to more sustainable materials in its production system and, for remaining products using lead, improved its recycling efforts, resulting in decreases lead releases between 2016 and 2021.
The winning submissions on this webpage were created solely by the students who participated in the Storytelling Challenge. The findings and views expressed in the submissions are solely those of the students, and not of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). Mention of a facility, company, or product in any of the submissions does not represent an endorsement by the US EPA.