Recyclemania Encourages Environmental Friendliness

Thursday, February 9th, 2006
By Gretchen Doores
The Chronicle

Faster than you can say "garbage," the 2006 Recyclemania competition is underway-but the 10-week intercollegiate recycling challenge is anything but rubbish.

This year, 93 schools are expected to take part in cleaning up their campuses, and for the first time, Duke is one of them.

Originally started by two ecologically enthusiastic students from Miami University in Ohio and Ohio University, the eco-friendly contest began in February 2001 and has grown significantly during the past five years.

Duke will be competing against schools such as Harvard University, Yale University and Tobacco Road rival the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  (See current standings) 

The Pratt School of Engineering has been running this Recyclemania reminder on the plasma screens around their buildings.

Originally, Duke was the only university in North Carolina participating in the challenge, but UNC entered just before the contest began Jan. 29.

Mary Buhl, Duke's recycling coordinator in the facilities management department, said she is eager to get students more involved and hopes that a spirit of recycling will permeate the campus in the coming weeks.

"Students can take what they learn in their dorm rooms and use it in their classrooms," she said.

In order to participate in Recyclemania, each school is required to complete an online registration and provide a count of the campus population.

Each school is also responsible for collecting recyclable materials, tracking recycling data and reporting it to Recyclemania each week.

In addition, the participating schools will be expected to provide weekly updates and-even if they do not get to take home the trophy-to conduct publicity on campus for the contest winners.

In the Recyclemania competition schools can grapple with each other in two different arenas. The Per Capita Classic requires schools to collect more recyclable materials per person than their collegiate rivals. The Waste Minimization challenge rewards the school that produces the smallest amount of solid waste per person.

Universities can enter into one of the competitions or opt for a larger challenge and the chance to be crowned as the Grand Champion of Recyclemania.

In order to receive this coveted title, however, competitors must dominate their rivals in both the Per Capita Classic and Waste Minimization competitions.

Duke will only be participating in the Per Capita Classic this year, and it will limit participation to residents from East and West Campuses in their data collection.

Buhl explained that she would like to use the entire University population in the future, but she has a small staff of only five full-time employees and a handful of part-time students, which limits their ability to do so this year.

Buhl noted, however, that being short-staffed will not slow Duke down, and she said she expects to see positive results each week as the competition continues.

She added that including only East and West Campuses will help maintain "accuracy and accountability" during the competition.

Buhl noted that she is optimistic about Duke's overall performance in Recyclemania. "Ultimately, [the competition] will help raise awareness about recycling and even if we don't win, we really can't lose in this," she said.