RecycleMania Contest Begins

RecycleMania, a program that targets recycling on college campuses, recently began. The 10-week period, which began the middle of last month, runs through March 27. The goal of the program is increasing recycling participation at colleges and universities.

This year’s RecycleMania will include 607 schools representing 49 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. The universities 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.

Last year, 510 participating colleges and universities collected more than 69.4 million pounds of recyclables and compostable organics. This prevented the release of 88,739 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere.

The RecycleMania competition began in 2001 as a challenge between Miami University of Ohio and Ohio University. Today, it is independently owned and governed by the RecycleMania Steering Committee, which is made up of recycling managers from five participating universities. The 2010 RecycleMania competition is administered by national nonprofit KAB in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise program. The competition is made possible with the sponsorship support of The Coca-Cola Company, KAB and the American Forest & Paper Association.

A complete list of participants can be found at http://recyclemaniacs.org/universities.asp.