“RecycleMania” is a nationwide recycling and waste reduction competition in which any degree certifying college or university that registers can participate. This is UCSB’s first year participating in the competition, and our own Katie Maynard isn’t talking trash when she says she’s out to win.
The RecycleMania Competition is broken down into 5 categories, and UCSB will be participating in all of them:
- Grand Champion: The Grand Champion category combines trash and core recyclable materials to determine a school’s recycling rate as a percentage of its overall waste generation. Successful colleges and universities in this category demonstrate their achievement in both source reduction and recycling.
- Stephen K. Gaski Per Capita Classic: Schools compete to see which can collect the largest combined amount of paper, cardboard and bottles and cans per person. The Per Capita Classic is the original RecycleMania competition.
- Waste Minimization: Schools compete to see which produces the least amount of municipal solid waste (both recyclables and trash) per person. This competition is intended to reward those schools that generate the least amount of combined waste and recyclables, emphasizing reuse and source reduction over recycling.
- Gorilla Prize: This category recognizes the larger schools that recycle the highest gross tonnage of combined paper, cardboard and bottle and cans during the ten-week competition, regardless of campus population.
- Targeted Materials: In addition to the four primary competitions, schools may compete in four targeted material categories including Paper, Corrugated Cardboard, Bottles and Cans, and Food Service Organics. UCSB will be participating in the Office Pack Competition.
The contest begins January 18 and ends March 28, and winning campuses will be awarded a trophy for each category and receive special recognition during the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament April 4-6 in Detroit. When asked if UCSB has a chance of winning a trophy, Katie, a campus sustainability coordinator who heads the Ellison Hall Sustainability Committee and works under the aegis of the Department of Geography, just grinned and said, “You betcha!” Go Katie!
Editor’s note: For more about Katie’s sustainability efforts, see see the March 21, 2008 article about her; for more about the Ellison Sustainability Committee, see its web site.
