RecycleMania urges student participation
By: Vicki Sedgewick
Issue date: 2/3/06 Section: Campus News
- Page 1 of 1
|
That is what the Utah State University Recycling Center is urging students to do as part of the national RecycleMania competition running through April 7.
In 2001, two universities in Ohio held a competition to see who recycled the most. Five years later, and in USU's second year of involvement, 88 schools are competing, including Brigham Young University, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Princeton University.
What once began as a friendly competition of two schools has now spread throughout the nation and is overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWise program, according to the RecycleMania Web site.
Students can participate by depositing recyclable items such as mixed and white paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, glass, plastic bottles and tin-coated steel cans into recycling central office locations and pick-up points inside or outside each building on campus.
"Our goal is to do better than last year," said Jay Price, recycling education coordinator. bins located in the hallways, "And to get people excited about recycling and, of course, to beat BYU."
The competition includes faculty and students, but are counted in different ways.
First, those who live on campus and are going to school full-time are counted as one person. Second, those who don't live on campus, but are going to school full time are counted as 3/4 of a person.
And last, students who don't live on campus and don't go to school full time are counted as 1/2 of a person. So, USU has 12,867.5 people that count in the competition, according to the USU Recycling Center Web site.
There are three competitions that decide who wins.
The first, the Per Capita Classic, is from the original competition. This is to see which university or college can recycle the largest amount of materials per person.
The second is the Waste Reduction competition. This is to see which university or college produces the least amount of solid waste. This includes the trash and the recycling.
"This is to get people to reuse the things that can be reused," Price said.
The third competition is the Grand Champion Competition. This is what decides who wins. This is who is the best at both the other competitions.
Winners will get bragging rights and an advertisement in the other schools' newspapers. The college or university will also receive a trophy made of recycled products.
Price encourages students to volunteer and reminds them they can get a free T-shirt for participating.
For further questions about the competition, visit www.usu.edu/recycle or www.recyclemaniacs.org.
-vlsedgewick@cc.usu.edu
