Something old, something new, something borrowed, something EPS

An Ohio high school student is in the spotlight for her creative uses of expanded polystyrene.

Alyssa Hertz, a senior at Copley High School near Akron, recently was featured in People magazine, on the website for NBC's Today Show and on a local TV station for making a wedding gown out of EPS products such as cups, plates and bowls for a school project.

(Small World Department : I went to Bowling Green State University with Alyssa's mom, Beth, who's also a freelance writer for Crain's Cleveland Business, a sister publication of Plastics News.)

Alyssa used more than 500 EPS pieces for the gown. She told People that the project was challenging at first as some of the plates cracked and some of the cups melted, but the overall effort "definitely got the creativity flowing."

Alyssa now plans to submit the gown to the Cleveland IngenuityFest, which exhibits work from local artists and innovators. She'll graduate from high school in a few weeks and plans to attend Kent State University, where she'll major in fashion design.