Randolph-Macon College students have joined forces to compete in
RecycleMania, a nationwide initiative that promotes waste reduction in campus communities. RecycleMania, which began in 2001, is a competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs. The 2011 competition runs from February 6 - April 2.
Over an 8-week period, schools report recycling and trash data. Schools are then ranked according to who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or who has the highest recycling rate. Participating schools can watch how their results compare against other schools and use this to rally their campus communities to reduce waste and recycle more.
This is the second year that R-MC is participating in RecycleMania.
Last year R-MC had the highest score in Virginia in the waste minimization category, a measure of the amount of recyclables against the amount of trash generated. This year, R-MC Environmental Health and Safety Programs Manager Craig Collins hopes to get more students, faculty and staff to participate in this year’s competition. “RecycleMania is a great way to recruit more people to recycle on our campus,” says Collins. “The competition is a good way to remind everyone that the simple act of recycling paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and aluminum products goes a long way to help our planet.”
For over a decade, R-MC has implemented energy conservation measures such as replacing windows with insulated glass, installing motion sensor lighting controls, reducing water consumption by using low flow shower heads, and recycling toner and inkjet cartridges, aluminum cans and paper. The college is a proud participant in the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP) at the E2 level. R-MC is only the second academic institution in Virginia to have its entire campus certified by the Department of Environmental Quality’s VEEP program.
All R-MC students, faculty and staff are encouraged to participate in RecycleMania by putting all clean recyclable paper, cardboard, plastic, glass or aluminum in one of the many blue recycling containers throughout campus. The more we recycle, the better R-MC will do in the competition.
The RecycleMania Competition is a project of the College and University Recycling Council (CURC), which promotes increased recycling participation and waste reduction on college campuses. Partnership support is provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise Program.
For more information on RecycleMania, visit www.recyclemania.org or contact Pam Harris Cox at 752-3712, pamelacox@rmc.edu or Anne Marie Lauranzon at 804-752-7317, alauranz@rmc.edu.