University of Arkansas a Winner in 'RecycleMania 2008’

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas has run a recycling program on campus since 1991, but this year was the first time the school went in for competitive recycling. For 10 weeks, from Jan. 27 through April 5, the university took part in “RecycleMania,” a national competition among college and university recycling programs. The contest was to find out who could collect the most recyclable material per person, the largest total amount of recyclables, the least trash per person, or have the highest recycling rate.

The results are in, and among the six Southeastern Conference schools participating in the competition, the University of Arkansas is winner in two categories: Waste Minimization, for producing the least amount of municipal solid waste per person; and Grand Champion, for having the largest amount of recycling per person and the smallest amount of solid waste per person. During the 10-week period the university collected 271,846 pounds of paper, cardboard, cans and bottles, an average of 13.59 pounds per person. This amounted to a 15 percent increase in recyclable collections over the same period last year.

The office of university housing took the lead in the competition, with a contest among residence halls that increased collections nearly 10 times over the previous year.

“We offered prizes for the residence halls based on how much they collected and also on the efforts they made to educate the students in their hall about recycling and RecyleMania,” said Linda Campbell, associate director of resident facilities for university housing. “The students really responded. Over the 10 weeks our moving crew collected and delivered nearly 18,000 pounds of paper, cardboard, cans and bottles to the campus recycling center.”

The 40 students living in Buchanan Droke Hall took top honors, collecting 26.15 pounds per person. Gregson Hall was the runner-up with 8.5 pounds per person. Students in Futrall Hall won in the “most improved” category, with the students increasing their recycling totals by five times over the amount collected in the first four weeks. Futrall also won the education prize. The Northwest Quad, with 571 students, collected the most recyclable material, 4,335 pounds over the 10 weeks.

Greek organizations on campus also got involved in RecycleMania, running their own competition in the fraternities and sororities. So far the Pi Beta Phi Sorority holds a commanding lead, with a total of 678 pounds collected, but their contest isn’t quite over: the students plan to continue until May 1.

Faculty and staff in the buildings on campus also took part in the event, with the Bell Engineering Center leading the effort, filling 67 bins with recyclable paper.

“RecycleMania started in 2001, but this is the first time the university was involved,” said Nick Brown, executive assistant for sustainability in the facilities management department. “The results show that people on campus are interested in recycling, and making it a competition gives them an extra incentive. This was an excellent start. The challenge now is to keep the momentum going and continue to increase our recycling efforts.

“We want to do even better in RecycleMania next year.”

Several businesses and campus groups helped sponsor the RecycleMania campaign at the university, including Roll Off Service, Waste Management Inc., Corrugated Services, PMC Printing Solutions, Facilities Management and the Residents’ Interhall Congress.