Recycling challenge shoots for competitive spirit

By L. Gabi Reyes

Recycling just became competitive.

Starting Jan. 28 students will compete against 124 universities in a ten-week recycling challenge dubbed "RecycleMania" to see which university can reduce the amount of waste it produces by the highest number.

"Peoples' habits need to change," said Lindsey Cromwell, sustainability coordinator for the Environmental Studies Institute. "Take a few extra steps to go to the recycling bin."

Cromwell hopes to see an increase in recycling of at least 25 percent for the duration of the competition. The competition will stretch from January to April.

Last year Santa Clara recycled over 438 tons of material and in 2005 threw away 283 tons of waste.

The RecycleMania Project aims to significantly reduce the amount of waste at Santa Clara by educating students about the importance of recycling.

"We hope to get as many students involved as we can. Not only is recycling important, it's really easy," James Hanold, co-president of the Grass Roots Environment Efforts Now Club said.

The Santa Clara program is a part of the National Recycling Coalition's College and University Recycling Council.

From now until April 7, campuses will compete in different contests to determine which school can collect the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita or obtain the highest recycling rate.

Santa Clara is one of seven California universities participating this year, competing against Stanford University, University of California, Davis, Point Loma Nazarene University, who placed fourth last year, and 2006 champions California State University, San Marcos.

Between January and April of 2006, the university discarded approximately 280.83 tons of waste, nearly surpassing the total amount of waste for the previous year in less than half the time, according to a report from Chris Young, recycling and landscape waste team leader.

"We're trashing our environment. We don't get another one, we might as well keep it clean," said Josh Fedder, a freshman interested in the recycling competition. "People don't pay enough attention to recycling and it's really important."

Young estimated students can minimize waste by 15 to 20 percent if students would recycle beverage containers and an extra 20 to 25 percent if everyone recycled paper.

In 2005, the university recycled 85 tons of cardboard, 137 tons of paper, 25,100 pounds of tin, 1,000 pounds of aluminum, 12,600 pounds of plastic, 27,300 pounds of glass and 216 tons of green waste according to the "Sustainability at SCU" Web site.

Cromwell hoped that a competition would inspire people to recycle more.

"There's a personal pride in SCU that will unite the campus community together in the competitive spirit," Cromwell said.

The RecycleMania project was created in 2001 by students at Ohio University and Miami University. Students decided to make an effort to reduce the astronomical amount of trash produced on campus by creating competition between the two campuses, hoping to spark interest in recycling.

Alec Cooley, collegiate programs manager of the National Recycling Coalition, believes RecycleMania can help campuses better understand the importance of recycling by bringing the student body together for a common goal.

"Athletic competitors now have something in common with green save-the-earth recyclers," Cooley said. Winners of the competition receive no physical prize, but are awarded bragging rights for a year.

Efforts to recycle and conserve have recently proved profitable for the university, which recently received a $109,000 rebate from Silicon Valley Power for equipping the campus bookstore, Shapell Lounge and the microelectronics lab in the engineering school with energy-saving heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

The HVAC and future rebates will be reinvested in more energy saving projects. Cromwell hopes this well be an incentive for students to start thinking energy-efficiently by taking steps toward sustainability.

"The throw-away society we live in has facilitated the idea that once we get rid of waste it doesn't matter where it goes. We need to all do our part to not trash our planet," Hanold said.

"Anyone can become involved. You don't have to be an environmentalist to recycle."

Contact L. Gabi Reyes at lgreyes@scu.edu.