For eight weeks, colleges across the United States and Canada can report the amount of recycling and trash collected each week to be ranked in various categories based on who recycles the most per capita. The competition started on Feb. 5, continuing until April 2.
The winning college will receive national recognition on the RecycleMania website and in a national press release, along with an award made of recycled materials and the right to host a traveling trophy for the upcoming year.
Longwood is competing in RecycleMania against universities across the country to reduce or eliminate waste on campus. The Office for Sustainability chose to compete in one of the nine categories, a category for the weight per capita, or the weight of recycled materials per student.
“We’re just telling students about what you can recycle and how you can recycle it and just spreading awareness about recycling,” said Eco Representative Jessica Newcomb.
The Office for Sustainability is hosting an information booth on Brock Commons on Feb. 23. The RecycleMania competition encompasses recycling of paper, aluminum, plastic, cardboard and composting.
According to Assistant Sustainability Coordinator Brittany Atkinson, a trash audit will be held on March 1. Trash will be collected from Brock Commons, and possibly academic and residential buildings. Then the office will dump the collected trash and sort through it, determining trash items versus recyclables.
The recyclable items will be weighed, and Newcomb said she will share the data on Facebook.
“It (RecycleMania competition) encourages students to recycle more and shows that by competing it entices them to want to recycle and promote sustainability around campus,” said Newcomb.
Unlike other years, staff from the Office for Sustainability plan to go into the recycling center on campus to hand weigh the materials themselves.
“This way, as an office we get to see what’s coming in, how much is cross-contamination,” said Atkinson. “So, for us, it’s good because we get a lot of data collection.”
Last year, the office went through an external warehouse that approximated the volume of recyclables. This year, they will have the exact measurements by weighing the materials themselves.
“Our recycling center is specifically open to the public so anyone in the Longwood community or anyone in the Farmville community can come bring their own recycling; I don’t think many campuses do that,” said Atkinson. “I guess that’s kind of unique for us.”
Both Newcomb and Atkinson see RecycleMania as an opportunity to encourage recycling through competition.
According to the RecycleMania website, “the program works to reinforce the practice of recycling at an age when many college students are forming the habits and values they will carry the rest of their lives.”
