RecycleMania Kicks Off Another Season of Green Team Pride
STAMFORD, Conn., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — RecycleMania springs back into action as college campuses compete to see who can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste. For a 10-week period, beginning in mid-January and running parallel to the college basketball season, colleges and universities take part in an exciting competition that increases recycling participation by students and staff, and raises awareness about the significance of waste reduction programs on campuses.
From January 17 through March 27, 2010, 607 schools representing 49 states, the District of Columbia and Canada will compete in eight categories to see who recycles the most on a per capita basis, who produces the least amount of waste and who recycles the largest percentage of their overall waste stream. Colleges and universities choose to participate in either the formal competition which ranks them based on standardized weight measurements, or as part of the less formal “Benchmark” division. In both cases, schools submit weight data for paper, cardboard, cans and bottles, food waste and general trash each week, and are in turn able to see how they measure up against each other in the continuously updated results.
“RecycleMania’s success comes from its ability to use competitive spirit and campus rivalries to motivate students who are less likely to respond to ‘save the earth’ kinds of messages,” according to Stacy Wheeler, co-founder of the RecycleMania competition.
Indeed, RecycleMania is about more than simply winning. It is an opportunity for schools to raise awareness of their campus recycling programs as well as waste reduction and conservation issues in general. And, of course, it’s also about simply recycling more. In 2009, 510 participating colleges and universities collected over 69.4 million pounds of recyclables and compostable organics. This prevented the release of 88,739 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E) into the atmosphere.
“The ability to energize students about recycling while tapping into the friendly competition between schools is the magic of RecycleMania,” said Ed Skernolis, vice president/recycling, Keep America Beautiful (KAB). ”Quantifying how much material can be collected for recycling and composting from a campus community enlightens not only the students and faculty, but helps the administration understand the positive environmental and economic impact that increased recycling can have on a university.”
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