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Steve Akers
Residential Programs and Services
spakers@indiana.edu
812-855-1905

Last modified: Tuesday, January 25, 2011

'RecycleMania' competition comes to IU Bloomington for a second round

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 25, 2011

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Once again it's time to pack up your plastics and accumulate your aluminum. RecycleMania is coming back to Indiana University Bloomington.

RecycleMania is a friendly, nationwide competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. The contest will run for eight weeks, from Feb. 6 to April 2.

Recycle Mania 2011

IU is paired in the competition division with Purdue University, Butler University, Indiana State University, Indiana Wesleyan University, and University of Evansville. During the contest, IU RecycleMania Coordinator Steve Akers and Meredith Dowling, coordinator of the IU waste-reduction program NoWaste, will collect and report waste and recycling data for the campus.

"With assistance from the Office of Sustainability, Building Services, and Hoosier Disposal & Recycling, publicity and data collection will be important keys to a successful outcome," said Akers, associate director of IU Residential Programs and Services. "It would be great for the IU Bloomington campus to win one of the contest prizes, but more important would be to raise awareness on how we may reduce waste on our campus."

Participating schools are ranked each week according to which collects the largest volume of recyclables and recyclables per capita, produces the smallest amount of trash per capita, and has the highest recycling rate. With each week's reports, schools can watch online as their results fluctuate and use the standings to rally their campus communities to reduce and recycle more.

IU Bloomington competed for the first time in 2010 and ranked first in waste minimization among Indiana schools, generating the least municipal solid waste per person -- 37.53 pounds, including trash and recyclables -- of Indiana schools that took part in the contest.

Goals of RecycleMania include promoting fair and friendly recycling competition, increasing recycling participation among students and staff, heightening awareness of schools' waste management and recycling programs, lowering waste generated on campus by reducing, reusing and recycling, and acting as a catalyst for universities to expand waste-reduction programs.

Initiated in 2001 as a local competition in Ohio, RecycleMania has grown rapidly, with 576 colleges and universities registered for the 2011 competition. RecycleMania is a project of the College and University Recycling Council, with program management provided by the Keep America Beautiful Foundation in coordination with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWise program. For more information, see https://www.RecycleMania.org.