RIT Students Help Haul Away a Half Ton of Garbage

What do 1,497 food wrappers and containers, 1,309 cigarette butts, 709 plastic shopping bags, one TV set and a shopping cart have in common?

They are among the 1,205 pounds of garbage that volunteers hauled out of Genesee Valley Park during the 20th annual International Coastal Cleanup on Sept. 17.

The group of more than 100 volunteers included 35 Rochester Institute of Technology students—some of them members of the RIT women’s hockey team and members of Professor Bill Larsen’s Water and Wastewater Transport class. They cleaned 29.25 miles of the park’s shoreline—along the Genesee River, Red Creek and Erie Canal—and hiking trails.

This year marked the fourth consecutive year that Larsen, an associate professor of civil engineering technology, and his students participated in the worldwide effort.

Note: RIT’s Department of Civil Engineering Technology, Environmental Management and Safety, in the College of Applied Science and Technology, offers undergraduate degrees in civil engineering technology, environmental management and technology, and safety technology; and certificates in industrial environmental management, environmental science, safety and health technology, and structure design. RIT’s civil engineering technology program is one of only two in New York state.