Twenty students from three western Kentucky and southern Illinois high schools learned problem solving skills that helped them propose solutions to one part of the world’s plastics waste problem during the “Hack the Plastics” event.
Twenty students from three western Kentucky and southern Illinois high schools learned problem solving skills that helped them propose solutions to one part of the world’s plastics waste problem during the “Hack the Plastics” event.

PADUCAH, Ky. – Students from three regional high schools recently teamed up for Hack the Plastics, an event created by the DOE Office of Environmental Management's (EM) Paducah Site cleanup contractor to “hack,” or propose solutions, to help solve a part of the global plastics waste problem.

"My students were engaged in a cooperative learning environment with other area high school students as they worked to develop solutions to a real world dilemma,” Massac County High School teacher Meaghan Musselman said. “They gained a better understanding of careers utilizing critical and creative thinking skills as well as an appreciation of the application of such work to many real world contributions.”

The event is part of the program ECOThink, developed by Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership (FRNP) in 2019. The contractor created the program to help local high school students learn practical applications for environmental stewardship in their everyday life.

Each year, ECOThink focuses on developing students’ critical and creative thinking skills, while giving them an opportunity to contribute their ideas to solving real world problems. Past projects have been centered on topics such as sustainable storm water management.

From left, Joey Coram of Massac County High School, Amyah Smith of Ballard Memorial High School and Cadin Drake and Matthew King of McCracken County High School collaborate on a concept to aid the nonprofit Empowered Solutions for Environmental Sustainability in providing fuel made from recycled plastics to families in developing countries.

From left, Joey Coram of Massac County High School, Amyah Smith of Ballard Memorial High School and Cadin Drake and Matthew King of McCracken County High School collaborate on a concept to aid the nonprofit Empowered Solutions for Environmental Sustainability in providing fuel made from recycled plastics to families in developing countries.

AJ Ragan of McCracken County High School works with his ECOThink team to brainstorm ideas that the nonprofit Empowered Solutions for Environmental Sustainability can apply to managing plastic waste around the world.
AJ Ragan of McCracken County High School works with his ECOThink team to brainstorm ideas that the nonprofit Empowered Solutions for Environmental Sustainability can apply to managing plastic waste around the world.
University of Kentucky College of Engineering Paducah campus instructor Jeffrey Seay educated students on how his nonprofit organization, Empowered Solutions for Environmental Sustainability, is recycling plastic bags into biofuels being used as sources of energy in developing countries.

University of Kentucky College of Engineering Paducah campus instructor Jeffrey Seay educated students on how his nonprofit organization, Empowered Solutions for Environmental Sustainability, is recycling plastic bags into biofuels being used as sources of energy in developing countries.

Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership (FRNP) presented a $3,000 donation to Empowered Solutions for Environmental Sustainability (ESES) to help further its engineering design projects being developed at the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Engineering Paducah campus. Pictured from left: Myrna Espinosa Redfield, FRNP; Steve Christmas, FRNP; Jeffrey Seay, UK Paducah and ESES; Byron Brown, FRNP; Maya Smith, UK Paducah; Dimitrios Karadimas, UK Paducah; Jessica Vasseur, FRNP; Josh Nelson, UK Paducah; and Brayden

Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership (FRNP) presented a $3,000 donation to Empowered Solutions for Environmental Sustainability (ESES) to help further its engineering design projects being developed at the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Engineering Paducah campus. Pictured from left: Myrna Espinosa Redfield, FRNP; Steve Christmas, FRNP; Jeffrey Seay, UK Paducah and ESES; Byron Brown, FRNP; Maya Smith, UK Paducah; Dimitrios Karadimas, UK Paducah; Jessica Vasseur, FRNP; Josh Nelson, UK Paducah; and Brayden Ivy, UK Paducah, who is kneeling.

Twenty students from Massac County, Ballard Memorial and McCracken County high schools took part in the Hack the Plastics event hosted at the Paxton Engineering Research Center.

Featured at this year’s event was Jeffrey Seay, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Kentucky Paducah. Seay serves as president and founder of Empowered Solutions for Environmental Sustainability, a Paducah-based nonprofit organization that designs and builds technology to address mismanaged plastic waste around the world.

The students participating in Hack the Plastics received practical advice on how to work as teams to develop creative solutions to support Seay’s organization in managing the challenges that many developing countries face with recycling plastics into biofuels that can be used for energy.

“Our team selects problems our students can relate to. This year, students learned how one of our region’s nonprofit organizations is recycling plastic bags into usable fuels for families in Africa,” FRNP Community Relations Specialist Steve Christmas said. “While the problem solving exercise is centered on an African community, students also learned how their everyday actions in the United States impacts the world at large.”

This year, FRNP partnered with the University of Kentucky College of Engineering Paducah campus, Empowered Solutions for Environmental Sustainability, and Sprocket, Inc. to bring the Hack the Plastics event to students in the region. Sprocket is a nonprofit digital economic development organization in Paducah.