RecycleMania kicks off 2011 recycling competition

RecycleMania springs back into action as college campuses compete to see who can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste. For an eight-week period, beginning in early February and running parallel to the NCAA basketball tournament, colleges and universities take part in an exciting competition that increases recycling participation by students and staff, and raises awareness about the significance of waste reduction programs on campuses.

From February 6 through April 2, 2011, 630 schools representing 49 states, the District of Columbia and Canada will compete in 9 categories to see who recycles the most on a per capita basis, who produces the least amount of waste, and who recycles the largest percentage of their overall waste stream. Colleges and universities choose to participate in either the formal competition which ranks them based on standardized weight measurements, or as part of the less formal “Benchmark” division. In both cases, schools submit weight data for paper, cardboard, cans and bottles, food waste and general trash each week, and are in turn able to see how they measure up against each other in the continuously updated results.

RecycleMania is an opportunity for schools to raise awareness of their campus recycling programs as well as waste reduction and conservation issues in general. In 2010, 607 participating colleges and universities collected over 84.5 million pounds of recyclables and compostable organics.

Administrative support for the 2011 RecycleMania Tournament is provided by the national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful.

The competition is made possible with the sponsorship support of The Coca-Cola Company, Alcoa, Waste Management, SCA and the American Forest & Paper Association.

Additional program support is provided by the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise program and the College and University Recycling Coalition (CURC).