What Is RecycleMania?
RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over a 10-week period, schools report recycling and trash data which are then ranked according to who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate. With each week’s reports and rankings, participating schools watch how their results fluctuate against other schools and use this to rally their campus communities to reduce and recycle more.
To learn more about the structure of the competition and the various
contests, please visit the Rules section.
Overall Goals for RecycleMania
- Have a fair and friendly recycling competition.
- Increase recycling participation by students and staff.
- Heighten awareness of schools' waste management and recycling programs.
- Expand economic opportunities while addressing environmental issues
in a positive way.
- Lower waste generated on-campus by reducing, reusing and recycling.
- Have the competition act as a catalyst for colleges and universities
to build and expand waste reduction programs on campus.
Why Is There a Need for RecycleMania?
Colleges and universities are small cities that consume large amounts of resources and generate much solid waste. Whether a school has an extensive waste reduction program or is just getting basic recycling collections off the ground, experience has shown that all schools have potential to further reduce the amount of resources they consume and dispose of. RecycleMania provides a tool for campus recycling coordinators, student green teams and facility service professionals to engage their campus community in recycling and waste reduction in a fun and friendly way. RecycleMania anticipates that environmental messages cannot always motivate action by themselves and seeks to present waste reduction in terms any college student can appreciate: beating the cross town rival! In the process, participation in the competition familiarizes students with a campus’s environmental programs and hopefully instills in them a life long habit. Past surveys have indicated 80% of participating schools experienced a noticeable increase in recycling collection during the competition.
RecycleMania Administration
The RecycleMania Competition is a project of the College and University Recycling Council (CURC) governed by an steering committee comprised of six individuals. These steering committee members are responsible for setting the rules and structure of the competition, as well as looking after its long term strategic planning. Committee members are typically professionals involved with waste reduction and sustainability issues on college campuses. The current steering committee includes Stacy Wheeler, University of North Florida; Deb Hanson, University of Arizona; Jack Debell, University of Colorado, Boulder; Rob Gogan, Harvard University; Ed Newman, Ohio University; Bill Rudy, Brigham Young University. The steering committee is organized under the RecycleMania Charter.
Program Management for RecycleMania is provided by Keep America Beautiful (KAB) in coordination with the US Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWise program. Additional sponsorship support is provided by The Coca Cola Company.
College and University Recycling Council (CURC)
As a technical council of the National Recycling Coalition, CURC provides networking opportunities and technical resources to its membership of professional recycling and solid waste managers. In addition to the RecycleMania competition, CURC provides member resources including web-based technical manuals and white papers, annual workshop and campus recycling tour in conjunction with the NRC conference, an ongoing webinar series and an information exchange listserv. Learn more about CURC at http://nrc-recycle.org/curc.aspx
History of RecycleMania
RecycleMania began in February 2001 when Ed Newman (Ohio University) and Stacy Edmonds Wheeler (Miami University) decided that something had to be done to increase recycling in the residence and dinning halls on their campuses. RecycleMania was born! During this 10-week competition, Miami University and Ohio University went head-to-head to see which school could recycle the most. The first year, Miami University won the competition over Ohio University.
RecycleMania gained momentum in the 2002 and 2003 competitions, approximately doubling participation each year. In 2002 and 2003, Bowling Green State University claimed the title, recycling 52.5 pounds per students for its second victory.
In 2004, 11 new schools joined the competition, raising the total number of participating schools to 17, and Miami University again climbed to the top. In 2004, RecycleMania partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise program to enhance and expand the competition, and the initiative won the National Recycling Coalition’s Outstanding Recycling Innovation Award.
In the 2005 competition, defending champion Miami University triumphed in the Per Capita competition, while California State University San Marcos won the Recycling Rate contest.
RecycleMania 2006 included 93 colleges and universities from around the country and expanded to include various contests. The 2006 competition saw new contests, including the Grand Champion and Waste Minimization. Cal State San Marcos took the Grand Champion trophy, while Point Loma Nazarene University generated the least amount of waste and wom the Waste Minimization contest. RecycleMania 2006 also saw Oregon State Univeristy win the Per Capita Classic, ousting three-time champion Miami University from the throne.
The 2007 and 2008 competitions both saw the number of participants double to 201 (2007) and 400 exactly (2008). With the 2007 competition administrative management shifted to the National Recycling Coalition. The EPA WasteWise program continues to provide key administrative and programmatic support. In 2008 RecycleMania saw the introduction of the parallel division system intended to promote greater "apple-to-apples" comparison by segregating the rankings between schools participating with their entire campus and those reporting data for only a subsection.
2009 sees another dramatic increase in participation to 510 schools. While the eight year streak of doubling in size each year is broken, 2009 is the first year for which all 50 states and the District of Columbia are represented. It is also the first year that RecycleMania welcomes international schools with the participation of five Canadian universities. The parallel division is tweaked slightly to create a "Competition" division that ranks all degree-granting colleges in North America that report data for their entire campus according to new tracking standards. All colleges and universities including international schools are alternately welcomed into the less formal "Benchmarking" division, where participants can unofficially compare themselves to other schools and promote the tournament on campus without the tracking and reporting requirements of the competition. Cal State San Marcos maintained its dominant position, bringing home its fifth Grand Champion prize. Newcomer McNeese State University grabbed the Per Capita Classic award, while North Lake College won the Waste Minimization and Rutgers University crushed the competition to claim the Gorilla Prize.
Questions?
If you have questions, please contact the RecycleMania Helpline at (843) 278-7686 or helpline@recyclemaniacs.org.