RecycleMania 2009 kicked off on Wednesday as residents all over campus started properly disposing of their bottles, cans and paper in hopes of winning points for their residence halls.
This recycling contest is “a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities,” according to the RecycleMania web site.
While Campus Residence encourages this competition between dorms, Stony Brook University is competing on a larger scale in the 2009 RecycleMania competition — 510 schools registered for this year.
This year’s RecycleMania competition also coincides with President Kenny’s latest five-year plan, one of the priorities being to “support sustainability through a green-campus initiative,” according to the Stony Brook Foundation web site.
Over a 10-week period which ends Mar. 25, schools will report recycling and trash data to the RecycleMania Administration, which are then ranked according to the following categories: the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, and the highest recycling rate.
Posters throughout residence halls and department buildings give tips on how to live green in the spirit of the green-campus initiative and RecycleMania.
Students, faculty and staff are advised to e-mail whenever possible to save paper, turn off lights and other electronics, and use mugs instead of disposable cups.
In order for recycled bottles to add up to points, students must empty the plastic containers of all liquid and crush them in order for them to be considered properly recycled.
“RecycleMania gives a competitive spirit to residents, and it gives them incentive to recycle correctly,” said Melissa Nuruzzaman, president of the Gray College Hall Council. “The fact that we have recyclable bags, containers and utensils, small things like that do make a difference.”
Gray College, located in Mendelsohn Quad, was the winner of RecycleMania 2008.
