Recyclemania

The 2009 RecycleMania will run it’s traditional 10 weeks from January 18th through March 28th, 2009. The schedule, which moves the competition up one week, will include a two week “trials” period at the beginning. During these first two weeks, reporting and ranking of school’s recycling data will not count toward the cumulative end results.

2009 Competition Dates Set: January 18 - March 28. 2009

Registration for 2009 RecycleMania will begin in September, 2008.

The following is an over of the competition excerpted from the Recyclemania web site.

What Is RecycleMania?

RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over a 10-week period, schools report recycling and trash data which 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 have the highest recycling rate. With each week’s reports and rankings, participating schools watch how their results fluctuate against other schools and use this to rally their campus communities to reduce and recycle more.

Overall Goals for RecycleMania

Have a fair and friendly recycling competition.

Increase recycling participation by students and staff.

Heighten awareness of schools' waste management and recycling programs.

Expand economic opportunities while addressing environmental issues in a positive way.

Lower waste generated on-campus by reducing, reusing and recycling.

Organize this event successfully so it can be repeated and possibly expanded to other campuses in the future.

Why Is There a Need for RecycleMania?

Colleges and universities are small cities that consume large amounts of resources and generate much solid waste. Whether a school has an extensive waste reduction program or is just getting basic recycling collections off the ground, experience has shown that all schools have potential to further reduce the amount of resources they consume and dispose of. RecycleMania provides a tool for campus recycling coordinators, student green teams and facility service professionals to engage their campus community in recycling and waste reduction in a fun and friendly way. RecycleMania anticipates that environmental messages cannot always motivate action by themselves and seeks to present waste reduction in terms any college student can appreciate: beating the cross town rival! In the process, participation in the competition familiarizes students with a campus’s environmental programs and hopefully instills in them a life long habit. Past surveys have indicated 80% of participating schools experienced a noticeable increase in recycling collection during the competition.

If you have questions, please contact the RecycleMania Helpline at (843) 278 7686 or recyclemania@nrc-recycle.org.