FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – For the third time ever, the University of Arkansas will participate in “RecycleMania,” a national competition among college and university recycling programs.

For the period from Feb 1 through March 27, the university will take part in a contest 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. In years past, the University of Arkansas has won different categories of the competition when matched against its Southeastern Conference peers.

Prizes are offered to people living in campus housing to spur the competition among those living in Greek houses and residence halls. Campus buildings used by faculty and staff are also counted in the competition.

“The competition is a great way to foster a sense of competition while educating the campus community about the importance of reducing waste and recycling,” said Nick Brown, director of campus sustainability. “The university’s Razorback Recycling will collect and weigh the recyclables from each hall or house and track the data. Prizes will be offered for the groups that have the highest participation and amounts of materials recycled.”

This year, Chancellor G. David Gearhart has endorsed the competition to the campus community. The text of his endorsement follows.

Weekly status boards will be posted on the Razorback Recycling Web site to keep the campus appraised of the previous week’s collection data. The recyclable items that are tracked by the contest include paper, cardboard, cans and bottles. Contest managers will evaluate performance, and cash prizes will be awarded to the residence halls and Greek organizations that recycle the most on a per capita basis.

During the 10 weeks of 2009’s RecycleMania, the university collected 213,756 pounds of paper, cardboard, cans and bottles, an average of 10.56 pounds per person, which was 7 percent more than recyclable collections before the competition began.

An open letter to the Campus Community from Chancellor Gearhart:

I’m very pleased that the University of Arkansas is participating in the 2010 RecycleMania competition for the third year in a row. The dates of the competition are from Feb. 1 – March 27.

As dedicated recyclers, Jane and I recycle everything possible at Fowler House, and we would like to take this opportunity to encourage the University of Arkansas community to participate in the recycling program. RecycleMania is a wonderful opportunity for faculty, staff, and students to show their commitment to recycling and to look for ways to increase the amount of paper, cardboard, and cans/bottles that we can divert from the local landfill.

I hope you will join this effort to reduce our campus’s carbon footprint.

Sincerely,
G. David Gearhart
Chancellor