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Cal State San Marcos Declared 2006 RecycleMania Winner
RecycleMania Winners
Grand Champion
(Highest overall average recycling rate)
Cal State San Marcos
50.9%
Per Capita Classic
(Greatest amount of recyclables collected per person*)
Oregon State University
91.35 lbs./person
NEW for
2006!
Waste Minimization
(Least amount of trash generated per person*)
Point Loma Nazarene University
35 lbs./person
Targeted Materials:
(Greatest amount of each material recycled per person*)
Paper
Harvard University
36.41 lbs./person
Bottles and Cans
Rhode Island School of Design
21.24 lbs./Person
Corrugated Cardboard
Cal State San Marcos
72.5 lbs./Person
Food Service Organics
Middlebury College
52.72 lbs./Person
* per person refers to the campus population consisting of both full- and part-time residential students, full-time nonresidential students, and both full- and part-time faculty and staff.
A record number of nearly 100 colleges and universities from
across the country vied for the top spot during this year's
RecycleMania
competition, which ran from January 29 to April 8, 2006. When
the final results were tallied, Cal State San Marcos was declared
Grand Champion, with an average recycling rate of 50.9 percent
over the 10-week period of competition—the highest of
all the participants.
What began as a friendly battle between two schools has exploded
into a nationwide phenomenon. Now in its sixth year, RecycleMania
gives campuses an opportunity to compete in seven different
waste reduction and recycling contests (see sidebar). A total
of 93 colleges and universities competed in this year's competition,
an increase from 46 in 2005. New to this year's competition
was the waste minimization competition, which focused on overall
waste reduction instead of just recycling. RecyleMania is
sponsored by our own WasteWise
program, the National
Recycling Coalition's College and University Recycling Council
(CURC) ,
and the National
Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology Program .
Winning is nothing new to Cal State, who recycled its way to the top for the second consecutive year. Still riding a wave of excitement from last year's competition, the school's recycling team actively promoted recycling and waste reduction from the first day of the school year. "The excitement was pervasive," said Charles Walden, Director of Facilities Services at Cal State. "RecycleMania gives the students a great opportunity to compete on a national scale."
In addition to Cal State's RecycleMania activities, it also runs a large furniture reuse program. The university helped furnish more than 30 disadvantaged libraries and schools in Baja, Mexico, with desks, shelves, and chairs it no longer needed.
This year's competition may be over, but participating schools can gear up for RecycleMania 2007, which will be held January through April of 2007. If you're not yet a part of this one-of-a-kind program, visit the RecycleMania Web site for tools to help get you started. You can also find tips and suggestions for how to get a leg up on next year's competition!
RecycleMania exemplifies the types of initiatives encouraged by our Resource Conservation Challenge within the national priority area of Municipal Solid Waste and Recycling.
For More Information:
- RecycleMania
- To register your school for the 2007 competition, contact
the WasteWise program (OSWWasteWise@epa.gov).
- Resource Conservation Challenge National Priority Area: Municipal Solid Waste and Recycling.