2008 Woodie Awards
Second Annual Recyclemania! Seeks to Increase Amount of Recycling on Campus
Christine Arsnow
Issue date: 1/29/08 Section: News
This Wednesday, Jan. 30, Bates College will kick off its second annual Recyclemania! competition in Commons. Students can stop by the Marche Station to answer trivia questions and win T-shirts, sustainability bags, compact fluorescent light bulbs and more.
Recyclemania! is a nation-wide effort to increase recycling on college campuses. Statistics reveal that a great portion of trash produced by college residence halls nationwide is actually recyclable material. Students tend to throw their recyclables in the trash because they are not familiar with the proper way to recycle specific materials or because they do not want to take the time to sort through their trash. Finding these excuses unacceptable, students at Ohio and Miami Universities organized the first Recyclemania!, an intercollegiate competition to challenge their fellow students to recycle, in 2001. The event has grown over the years and now includes 201 schools.
According to Environmental Coordinator Julie Rosenbach, Bates will approach Recyclemania! 2008 from two angles: first, an intra-college challenge will pit house against house and dorm against dorm in a race to see who can recycle the most (per capita) over the course of 10 weeks (Feb. 4 - April 4). Second, Bates, Bowdoin and Colby will be competing against one another to see who recycles the most campus-wide. The CBB contest will run from Feb. 4 to March 7.
Throughout the competition, representatives from the Environmental Coordinator's office will visit residences to weigh recycling accumulation for the inter-dorm/house competition. Look for results in The Student each week.
Rosenbach offers several tips to help students stay committed to recycling over the next several weeks. First, make sure you don't dump any trash in the recycling bins; even one carton of leftover Thai food contaminates the entire container. Second, pizza boxes are NOT recyclable (due to oil that seeps into the cardboard), but boxes from six-, 12- and 30-packs of beverages can be recycled in mixed paper bins. Additionally, bottles and cans should be emptied before being thrown into the bottles/cans bin.
Not independently motivated to recycle? Each student in the winning house and dorm will receive a $5 gift certificate toward delicious treats at Nezinscot Farm (www.nezinscotfarm.com).
Recyclemania! is a nation-wide effort to increase recycling on college campuses. Statistics reveal that a great portion of trash produced by college residence halls nationwide is actually recyclable material. Students tend to throw their recyclables in the trash because they are not familiar with the proper way to recycle specific materials or because they do not want to take the time to sort through their trash. Finding these excuses unacceptable, students at Ohio and Miami Universities organized the first Recyclemania!, an intercollegiate competition to challenge their fellow students to recycle, in 2001. The event has grown over the years and now includes 201 schools.
According to Environmental Coordinator Julie Rosenbach, Bates will approach Recyclemania! 2008 from two angles: first, an intra-college challenge will pit house against house and dorm against dorm in a race to see who can recycle the most (per capita) over the course of 10 weeks (Feb. 4 - April 4). Second, Bates, Bowdoin and Colby will be competing against one another to see who recycles the most campus-wide. The CBB contest will run from Feb. 4 to March 7.
Throughout the competition, representatives from the Environmental Coordinator's office will visit residences to weigh recycling accumulation for the inter-dorm/house competition. Look for results in The Student each week.
Rosenbach offers several tips to help students stay committed to recycling over the next several weeks. First, make sure you don't dump any trash in the recycling bins; even one carton of leftover Thai food contaminates the entire container. Second, pizza boxes are NOT recyclable (due to oil that seeps into the cardboard), but boxes from six-, 12- and 30-packs of beverages can be recycled in mixed paper bins. Additionally, bottles and cans should be emptied before being thrown into the bottles/cans bin.
Not independently motivated to recycle? Each student in the winning house and dorm will receive a $5 gift certificate toward delicious treats at Nezinscot Farm (www.nezinscotfarm.com).
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