The University of Arkansas recently placed fourth in the Southeastern Conference division of RecycleMania with an 18.71% diversion rate. During the competition, the University of Arkansas mitigated 604 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to removing 118 cars off the road or the energy consumption of 52 households. The University of Arkansas participates in RecycleMania as part of their goal to become a zero waste institution.
The competition involved many different events, including a book drive, an e-waste drive and mini competitions between organizations on campus. . Kappa Kappa Psi placed first place in the Resident Student Organization division, followed by the American Concrete Institute and SAAC. Participating organizations collectively contributed 60 garbage bags of bottles and cans, and over 2000 pounds of paper! All of these events focused on the importance of getting UA students involved in recycling.
As a whole, campuses across the nation came together and recycled 89 million pounds of waste. Every university played a part in the mission to improve the awareness of recycling.
The U of A made significant improvements in its level of participation from last year. “The largest improvement in recycling was in the overall weight that was recycled. If you look at the numbers, we increased our total recycling weight substantially,” said Carlos Ochoa, the director of the Office for Sustainability.
U of A organizations on campus are continually planning ways to increase recycling efforts. “I think the main thing to do would be increasing awareness and enthusiasm for the event,” said Lauren Hake, RIC director of sustainability. “Events and programs are great ways to increase awareness and enthusiasm to keep the students recycling.”
RecycleMania did just this, serving to motivate universities to recycle more and to continue efforts even after the competition is over. “RecycleMania is really just a snapshot of a campus’ ongoing efforts. The better we are today, the better we will rank next year,” Ochoa said.
Ochoa reminds students that the importance is not the competition but the continuing efforts afterward. “The goal is to remind everyone that the University made a commitment to become a zero waste institution by 2040, and we can’t reach our goal without everyone’s participation,” explained Ochoa.
The University of Arkansas’ efforts to reach this goal are being furthered by a new facilities management program in the works that will significantly reduce waste and put the university one step closer in becoming a zero waste institution.
“The Office for Sustainability and Facilities Management will soon release details about a pilot program to reduce waste by 90% in an academic building,” Ochoa said. “We’ll monitor the progress and then extend the program to additional buildings. The pilot will be a combination of policy changes and improved infrastructure. Hopefully, we’ll be able to launch this summer.”
Participation and awareness throughout all organizations and facilities on campus is important in the mission to increase the amount of waste diverted to recycling and ultimately reach the goal of becoming a zero waste university.