U of M takes part in collegiate recycling competition

By Laura Fenton

Ready, set — recycle!

The University of Memphis is waiting to see how it fared in RecycleMania, a collegiate recycling competition that kicked off its annual drive on Feb. 6. Results of the competition are to be posted April 15 at www.recyclemaniacs.org.

“Recycling coordinators understand that the natural rivalry that exists on college campuses is a great way to tap student interest and get them engaged, particularly in research conservation issues,” said Alec Cooley, program manager for RecycleMania.

The program started informally between rival schools Miami University of Ohio and Ohio University in 2001 and has grown rapidly. This year, 630 colleges are competing in the drive, 10 of which are from Tennessee.

It is the second year the U of M will participate and first year it will compete among other schools. The collection total of a first-year program sets a “benchmark” that is used when it competes against other schools in the years following. All school collections end on April 2.

“I’m definitely hoping to see an improvement because last year was our first time to do it,” said Amelia Mayahi, sustainability coordinator at the U of M. “We’ve lived and learned from our process and hopefully can make it better this year.”

The U of M’s effort included a recycling competition between sororities and fraternities; a dorm recycling competition; educational programming at the Tiger Den; and the increase of recycling bins around campus.

Two new features for this year included recycling in the kitchen of the Aramark dining halls on campus and a “Shred Day” to shred and discard sensitive documents.

Recycling packaging from cooking ingredients in the kitchens is not necessarily visible to students, but Mayahi believes it is a demographic of campus that will greatly increase the University’s weight total.

Schools compete in nine categories based on materials and overall percentages.

Mayahi says the U of M has greatly increased its recycling efforts the past three years.

In 2009, the campus recycled 76 tons of paper. By 2010, the campus had increased to 142 tons of paper for the year.

RecycleMania is run by the RecycleMania Steering Committee, comprised of recycling managers from six participating universities, and with support from the national non-profit Keep America Beautiful.

For more information about RecycleMania, visit www.recyclemaniacs.org.

For a video on recycling, visit www.memphis.edu/uofmvideos and search for “University of Memphis recycling.”