FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas Office for Sustainability has announced the beginning of RecycleMania, an event that promotes recycling on campus through various recycling initiatives.
The OFS oversees the university’s progress in the national RecycleMania competition during its eight-week duration, which began Feb. 1 and concludes March 28.
“RecycleMania is all about increasing recycling and decreasing waste,” said Carlos Ochoa, director of the Office for Sustainability.
Students can participate in RecycleMania by continuing to recycle or donating books to the book drive on campus. Drop-off locations for the book drive can be found at the Union, the OFS, and the Global Campus. Books of all types are accepted.
Students can also turn in cans and bottles to the Pepsi Dream Machine located by the Arkansas Union. PepsiCo uses the Pepsi Dream Machine to collect recycling data on the university’s campus as part of its own competition, which carries a $25,000 prize. The University of Arkansas is competing against more than 65 institutions and is currently in second place.
Ochoa hopes for similar success in the RecycleMania contest. The university with the most improvement over its initial RecycleMania baseline receives national recognition on the RecycleMania website and through a national news release in addition to an award made of recycled materials, according to the RecycleMania website, recyclemaniacs.org.
In conjunction with the OFS, the Residents’ Interhall Congress, Associated Student Government, University Housing, and Arkansas Union are providing students with opportunities to engage in recycling initiatives that are part of RecycleMania.
“RecycleMania is not just a brief part of time [where] we’re trying to increase recycling and decrease waste. It’s really a snapshot of what we’re doing year-round,” Ochoa said.
For more information about RecycleMania, contact the UA Office for Sustainability at sustain@uark.edu.
By Hanan Southard, Agricultural Communications Experiential Learning Lab Reporter