The AUSA Senate Sustainability Committee will lead DU in a 10-week nationwide recycling competition that began Sunday and will run through March 28.
RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities, according to the National Recyclemaniacs organization
“The competition will measure DU’s efforts to minimize waste and to recycle more, an endeavor that can help the campus garner national attention,” said Mary Jean O’Malley, AHUM/SOCS senator and chair of the Sustainability Committee.
Schools are ranked over a period of 10 weeks based on who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or has the highest recycling rate. With each week’s reports and rankings, participating schools watch how their results compare to those of other schools and use this to rally their campus communities to reduce and recycle more.
Last year, over 58 million pounds of items were recycled, and Colorado State University received high honors and a second-place ranking in the competition.
This year, DU is competing against 345 schools across the U.S. and Canada.
“Our Colorado competition is Colorado State, CU-Boulder, UCCS and CC,” said O’Malley.
“Though it’s a friendly competition, it is one more opportunity to beat CC, but if we don’t, at least we’ll be recycling.”
As part of the competition, the Sustainability Committee will form a team of 12 students to promote RecycleMania.
The team will present information about the competition in classrooms in order to maximize student engagement.
Everything that is currently recyclable on campus counts towards the competition, including plastics #1-7, cardboard, paper, glass and aluminum, according to O’Malley.
Anything with liquid, food waste, grease, plastic bags, coffee cups or Styrofoam are not recyclable and should be disposed of as trash.
The Sustainability Committee also recommends that students use less paper by printing double-sided or using electronic communication.
Every building, office and residence hall across campus have blue bins designated for recyclable items.
If you have questions about bin locations or pick-up times, visit www.du.edu/recycling.
“I hope everyone gets involved,” said O’Malley.
“After all, recycling is a cool thing to do.”
Other environmental initiatives
At DU, 28 percent of the campus’ energy is provided by wind powerThis is the largest wind-energy purchase of any university in ColoradoEach new building is evaluated to determine Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification opportunitiesThe Ricketson Law Building at the Sturm College of Law was awarded a green LEED certification, and Nagel Hall has achieved a LEED gold ratingDU has hired a Campus Energy Manager to raise environmental awarenessDU has completed its first-ever greenhouse gas inventory, which was submitted to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), to identify how to work toward carbon neutralityThe Provost created a university-wide Sustainability Council in 2007 to monitor DU’s progress toward meeting the goals of the ACUPCCThe Sustainability Council is comprised of six committes, including best practices, curriculum, facilities, outreach, recycle and transportationRecyclables on campus include plastics #1-7, cardboard, paper, glass and aluminumDU’s recycling bins are single stream, meaning different recycling materials can be combined in the same binFor more information, visit www.du.edu/facilities or www.du.edu/green
