Our New Years’ Resolution? Bring home the gold this year for RecycleMania 2015!
We’re kicking off the New Year and gearing up for RecycleMania 2015, our eighth entry into this annual nationwide competition. In just a few weeks, The University of Arkansas will be joining hundreds of campuses across the nation in an eight-week competition to see who can waste the least and recycle the most. From February 1st to March 28th, the Office for Sustainability will be collecting and reporting all recycling on campus, as well as tracking and cutting down on how much we throw away as a campus. Want to help us win? Here’s what you can do!
- Live on campus? Help your dorm win the Residence Hall competition, a great way to get involved!
- Get a head-start on spring cleaning! Clear out your office space and bring us all those old papers and unused materials. You can bring The Office for Sustainability any paper recycling, any books for our Better World Book Drive, as well as old CDs and plastic cards. Keep an eye out for Better World Book Drive dropboxes on campus once the Drive starts. We’re also hosting an E-waste Drive, so you can leave your broken or unused tech with us, too!
- Ever used the PepsiCo Dream Machine in front of the Union? Now’s a good time to try it out: PepsiCo is hosting its own Campus Recycling Challenge going on right now, and University of Arkansas is already in second place! If we increase our Dream Machine usage even more by March 1st, our school could win the first prize of $25,000, second prize of $15,000, or third of $5,000! First prize earnings can be used towards a free on-campus concert featuring a band of PepsiCo’s choosing.
So, how does this competition fit into our larger goals? RecycleMania is one of the many ways in which we are working to become a Zero Waste institution by 2021. RecycleMania and other campus programs help to boost awareness and establish sustainable habits that persist after the competition is over.
Last year, the University recycled 293,369 pounds in eight week, nearly 20 percent of our total waste! In addition to recyclables, the electronic waste drive collected 837 pounds of electronics and the book drive collected an estimated 100 books. Let’s aim to even better this year, and make RecycleMania 2015 our best year yet!
If you would like to assist in these efforts and help the UA gain back its first place position, contact the Office for Sustainability RecycleMania team at sustain@uark.edu. For more information on RecycleMania events and opportunities, check out wordpress.uark.edu/sustain.