Partnership Aids Campus Recycling

The Alcoa Foundation, Pittsburgh, has announced a partnership with Keep America Beautiful (KAB) and the College & University Recycling Coalition (CURC) to provide more than 11,500 recycling bins to 35 colleges and universities in the United States. The bins will placed to help expand on-campus recycling programs and raise awareness about the environmental impact of recycling, say the three groups.

In particular, the Alcoa Foundation Recycling Bin Grant Program was created to help schools boost their recycling results during the eight-week RecycleMania tournament, says the coalition partners in a news release. Ideally, the effort also will “strengthen [campus] recycling efforts by reaching more than 300,000 students, staff, faculty and campus visitors throughout the year.”

RecycleMania, which concludes each March 31, is a competition that aims to change behavior about recycling and raise awareness about waste reduction programs on college campuses. The grantees will receive between 100 and 1,500 bins.

“We’re proud to partner with Keep America Beautiful and the College & University Recycling Coalition to provide more than 11,500 recycling bins to college and university campuses,” says Paula Davis, president of the Alcoa Foundation. “The recycling bin grant program reinforces Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation’s commitment to increasing recycling rates in the U.S. to 75 percent by 2015.”

“Alcoa Foundation has been a true leader in advancing recycling nationwide through its recycling bin grant and other programs,” says Matthew McKenna, president and CEO of KAB. “Its involvement with RecycleMania and the College & University Recycling Coalition’s webinar series has helped to increase recycling on campuses and instill a recycling ethic that college students will carry with them the rest of their lives.”

The Alcoa Foundation Recycling Bin Grant Program recipients are:

• Arizona State University
• Baylor College of Medicine (TX)
• Boston College
• Bridgewater College in Virginia
• Carnegie Mellon University, Pa.
• Clarkson University in New York
• College of Charleston S.C.
• Cuyahoga (Ohio) Community College
• DePauw University in Indiana
• East Tennessee State University
• Eastern Illinois University
• Fontbonne University in Missouri

• Franklin College in Indiana
• Glendale (Ariz.) Community College
• Indiana State University
• Ivy Tech Community College, Wabash Valley Ind.
• Kansas State University
• Kent State University in Ohio
• Keystone College in Pennsylvania
• Lewis and Clark Community College, Illinois
• Michigan State University
• Northern Illinois University
• Northwest Missouri State University
• Saint Louis University
• Southern Illinois University Carbondale
• Spelman College in Georgia
• Stark State College in Ohio
• The University of Akron, Ohio
• The University of Toledo in Ohio
• University of Georgia
• University of Illinois - Chicago
• University of Missouri - Kansas City
• University of Tennessee
• University of Texas - Austin
• Western Carolina University in North Carolina

Additionally, CURC, in partnership with KAB and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), has announced the schedule for its 2013 series of educational webinars, sponsored by Alcoa Foundation. CURC webinars feature recognized collegiate and industry recycling experts covering a range of topics related to sustainable materials management. All webinars are free to registered participants. A schedule of the webinars can be found at www.curc3r.org.