EcoChallenge

Students could be rocking out to a popular band on a greener campus this spring if the invention created by a team of students impresses music giant MTV and the invention geniuses at General Electric.

Five students from this university are among the final 10 entries in the mtvU GE ecomagination Challenge, a national competition to promote college students' environmentally friendly inventions, with their solar-powered trash and recycling compactor.

The contest selected the university group from more than 100 student entries from 76 different colleges and universities. Winners receive a $25,000 grant to build the product and an on-campus concert featuring former members of Blink-182 and The Distillers, now called Angels and Airwaves.

The university team first designed its invention last semester for the business school's Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams program, a three-year initiative for students to create their own marketable products.

To create a trash can with a larger capacity and to ensure the placement of more recycling bins around the campus, the five-student team designed a product with one bin for trash and another for recyclable materials. A solar-powered steel crusher continually compacts waste, and a built-in computer can alert Facilities Management when the bins need to be emptied, team members say.

"I was walking out of The Diner and saw three trash cans overfilling with trash," said Allen Jones, a sophomore mechanical engineering major. "People may put trash in bins, but the trash is going to get on the sidewalks anyway because the cans are full."

Last year, the university generated more than 10,000 tons of solid waste, of which more than 3,600 tons were recyclable, said Sandra Dykes, facilities management's building and landscape services assistant director of administrative services.

While that is only a little more than 35 percent recycled material, that percentage had been a long-term goal of the university's. In 2005, it was only 22 percent, and the goal for 2007 is 30 percent, Dykes said.

"This will change the way people throw away their waste," said Kyle Bodt, a junior English and business major who is involved in the competition. "It will create more awareness."

The university considered purchasing similar solar-powered trash compactors, but those devices, now available on the market, are more expensive than the QUEST group's invention, Dykes said.

"It's free energy," Dykes said. "It will save time, labor and space. Here is a smaller can that holds a lot more. There won't be as many trips to empty bins, cutting down labor and time."

While the team's product has the potential to help cut down on excess waste, the invention would only make a difference if students use it, said Gerald Suarez, QUEST's program director.

"Students have to use it. ... It could end up being a great idea sitting in a corner and no one takes advantage of it," Suarez said.

Although the contest's judges may be influenced by an online vote that is now underway, the GE and mtvU judges will officially decide the winner.

Contact Samantha Lee at newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu.