Recycling competition goes national as RecycleMania returns

RecycleMania is back on campus for the third time. After taking a break last year after two winning years, the Recycling Department decided to get BGSU back into the nationwide recycling competition for 2005.

RecycleMania is a competition among colleges and universities across the United States. Faculty, staff and students all play a part in contributing to the total poundage of material recycled.

This year, 49 schools are competing for the title of RecycleMania champion. Ohio rivals include Bowling Green, Ohio, Miami, Ohio State and Youngstown State universities. Ivy League schools such as Yale and Harvard are competing as well.

BGSU competed in 2002 and 2003 and won both years. “This coverage gets us recognition with all the other competing universities, really creating a competitive name for BGSU outside of athletics,” Craig Wittig, BGSU recycling coordinator, said.

The contest started between Ohio University and Miami University, two schools with a predisposition to rivalry, according to Ed Newman, OU recycling and refuse manager.

“We needed to make a bigger impact,” Newman said. “We have had success increasing recycling rates by getting more people interested. We went from a 20-25 percent [recycling] rate in dining and residence halls to more than 35 percent last year.”

The 10-week contest began Jan. 30. Recycling totals will be updated weekly. Updates and contest information is available at www.recyclemaniacs.org.

This event is organized and operated by university recycling coordinators and supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise program. WasteWise is a flexible program that allows partners to design their own waste-reduction programs tailored to their needs, according to the EPA Web site.

“WasteWise provides much needed technical and logistical assistance,” said Michael Scozzafava, environmental protection specialist and WasteWise team member.

“This partnership in RecycleMania is the first step in a larger WasteWise college and university campaign, intended to encourage college and university partners to be more active. Our assistance has made it possible for more schools to participate–49 this year, up from 17 last year.”

“The importance of conserving our dwindling resources will only grow in time,” Wittig said. “This contest illustrates that the conservation issue is much larger than between residence halls or even between campuses. It is of national and international concern. With that being said, let’s prove that we can win this contest every time we compete.”

The current recycling contest between residence halls, Battle of the Recyclables, will continue alongside RecycleMania, according to Wittig. Both contests will conclude on April 9.