RecycleMania 2011 – May The Greenest School Win!
Yesterday began the 11th annual RecycleMania event, where colleges and universities around the country compete to see which schools can reduce the most waste and collect the largest amount of recyclables. Participating schools begin tracking and reporting recycling weights for the first week of the official 8 week tournament on February 6 and compete for the top 5 spots in the four primary competitions, as well as the four targeted material competitions. This year, 6 million students and over 1.5 million staff and faculty will be representing their school, and competing in the following categories:
Grand Champion
The Grand Champion category combines trash and core recyclable materials to determine a school’s recycling rate as a percentage of its overall waste generation. Successful colleges and universities in this category demonstrate their achievement in both source reduction and recycling.
Stephen K Gaski Per Capita Classic
Schools compete to see which can collect the largest combined amount of paper, cardboard and bottles and cans per person. The Per Capita Classic is the original RecycleMania competition.
Waste Minimization
Schools compete to see which produces the least amount of municipal solid waste (both recyclables and trash) per person. This competition is intended to reward those schools that generate the least amount of combined waste and recyclables, emphasizing reuse and source reduction over recycling.
Gorilla Prize
This category recognizes the larger schools that recycle the highest gross tonnage of combined paper, cardboard and bottle and cans during the ten-week competition, regardless of campus population.
Targeted Materials
In addition to the four primary competitions, schools may compete in four targeted material categories including Paper, Corrugated Cardboard, Bottles and Cans, and Food Service Organics.
The only thing missing from the competition is a category for the largest amount of electronics recycled by each school! Hopefully RecycleMania 2012 will consider adding it as a category…I know one electronics recycling facility that would certainly be happy to facilitate the collections in New York State!
RecycleMania began in February 2001 when Ed Newman (Ohio University) and Stacy Edmonds Wheeler (Miami University) decided that something had to be done to increase recycling in the residence and dinning halls on their campuses. RecycleMania was born! During this 10-week competition, Miami University and Ohio University went head-to-head to see which school could recycle the most. The first year, Miami University won the competition over Ohio University. In 2004, RecycleMania partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise program to enhance and expand the competition, and the initiative won the National Recycling Coalition’s Outstanding Recycling Innovation Award.
Since 2001, RecycleMania has gained a ton of momentum, and for the 2011 competition, 625 schools have registered to reduce their waste and increase recycling (385 for the Competition Division, and 235 for the Benchmark Division). Below is a list of participating schools in New York State, and Sunnking is proud to partner with a handful of these institutions for their ongoing electronics recycling needs.
The rankings listed below are for the unofficial results of the 2011 pre-season “trial” weeks which extend from January 23rd through February 5. These ranking positions are for informal comparison and are not considered official results. Results for the official 8 week tournament will be posted to RecycleMania website beginning Friday, February 18.
Best of luck to all of the schools who are involved in RecycleMania 2011, and stay tuned for the results!