RecycleMania Kicks Off At Colorado State University

RecycleMania, a 10-week recycling competition between colleges and universities across the nation, kicks off this week at Colorado State University. This year, more than 500 universities are participating.

Over a 10-week period, campuses compete in different contests to see which institution can collect the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita or have the highest recycling rate, according to a Colorado State press release.

The main goal of the event is to increase student awareness of campus recycling and waste minimization. All participating schools are required to report measurements in pounds on a weekly basis.

Last year, Colorado State placed second in the nation in the Grand Champion competition for RecycleMania, finishing with a cumulative recycling rate of 51 percent of the total waste generated on campus - up from 41 percent the previous year. CSU also finished fifth in the country in the Waste Minimization Category.

“Finishing second in the nation among the hundreds of universities participating underscores both the university and student commitment to sustainability,” says Tonie Miyamoto, director of communication for Housing and Dining Services at Colorado State.

Colorado State now offers single-stream recycling on campus, which allows all recyclable items - from paper to cans to cardboard - to be placed in recycling bins.

This year, 510 colleges and universities are participating in Recyclemania, a 25 percent increase over 2008, the press release says. More significantly, the list of schools represents for the first time all 50 of the United States. Also for the first time, the competition is joined by schools outside the United States, including five universities in Canada and the Rajarambapu Institute of Technology in Islampur in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

To learn more about the RecycleMania competition, visit www.recyclemania.org.