RECYCLEMANIA
RecycleMania is a 10-week waste minimization, recycling and composting competition between hundreds of schools nationwide during the spring semester. The RecycleMania Competition is a project of the College and University Recycling Council (CURC) governed by an steering committee comprised of six individuals. Staff administration for RecycleMania is provided by the National Recycling Coalition (NRC). Learn more at www.recyclemania.org.
2009 Results
This year UNH came in 68th out of 206 schools in the Grand Champion Competition Division! UNH beat Harvard (75th), Yale (14th5), and UMaine (206th). UNH recycled 243,000 lbs in 10 weeks! Learn more...
510 schools from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Canada took part in RecycleMania 2009, which has several competitions like Grand Champion. The 4.7 million students and 1.1 million faculty and staff on these campuses collectively recycled or composted just over 69.4 million pounds of waste over ten weeks.
From January 18 to March 28, 2009, UNH competed against 206 schools nationwide in the Grand Champion Division of RecycleMania. For 10 weeks, the Ecological Advocates, ResLife Hall Directors, the Student Senate, and UNH Media Relations worked diligently to get the word out to the UNH community to recycle more and waste less. How?
- The Ecological Advocates tabled in the MUB.
- Gnarlz, the UNH mascot, reminded hockey fans to recycle in the Whittemore Arena.
- The Operating Staff Council conducted a paper waste pilot study and collected 55 pounds of bulk mail.
- UNH Dining, Facilities Grounds and Event Support, and Waste Management put in extra effort to report weights each week for different targeted materials.
Thanks to everyone’s collaborative effort and the UNH community’s commitment to RecycleMania, UNH went from 91st in the beginning of the competition to 68th in the final round of the Grand Champion division!
Cumulative UNH Final Results: January 18, 2009 ~ March 28, 2009
- Grand Champion – 68th with a 30.75% recycling rate
- Per Capita Classic – 95th with 14.24 lbs. recyclables/person
- Waste Minimization – 74th with 46.32 lbs. waste/person
- Gorilla Prize – 59th with 242,895 lbs of cumulative recyclables
- Targeted Paper Competition – 87th with 5.16 lbs. paper/person
- Targeted Corrugated Cardboard – 61st with 5.75 lbs. cardboard/person
- Targeted Bottles and Cans – 47th with 3.34 lbs. bottles and cans/person
- Targeted Food Service Organics – 42nd with 2.33 lbs. food service organics/person
2010 Here UNH Comes!
Although we did well in 2009, UNH faculty, staff and students still produced 46lbs of waste per person in 10 weeks. If you multiply that out for a year, most of us would produce our body weight in trash annually. Something to think about and overcome next year!
UNH RecycleMania Collaborators
- UNH Residential Life
- UNH Student Senate
- UNH Facilities Grounds & Event Support
- UNH Dining
- Ecological Advocates
- UNH University Office of Sustainability
- OS Council
