RecycleMania, a nation-wide contest between colleges and universities in the country, ended last week, and Auburn closed with much better numbers than a year ago.
The University collected approximately 202,000 pounds of recycled goods from Jan. 27 through April 5, which is 59,000 more pounds than it did in 2007.
Though final results won’t be tallied until next week, that total should put Auburn in the top 50 of all schools in terms of total weight collection.
Donny Addison, the recycling and waste reduction coordinator for Auburn, was pleased with the results.
“Our collection rates went up 20 percent and stayed consistent throughout the program,” Addison said. “Overall, more people are using recycling bins on campus than they ever have before.”
Addison said a big reason for the improvement from last year is the help received from residential halls on campus.
“The Hill, the Quad and the Extension accumulated for 34,000 pounds and really helped facilitate communication on campus about recycling,” Addison said.
Those dorms competed against each other during the 10-week event, and the Extension edged out the Hill and the Quad to win, Addison said.
Auburn was one of eight SEC schools in the contest and finished near the bottom, said Addison.
However, he said the University is making strides to help turn its low finish around next time.
“Last year, we hardly did anything,” Addison said. “There was very little promotion, maybe just an article or two in the paper, but this year we grew some, made a good starting point and took a huge step in the right direction.”
Addison said other schools’ recycling programs are one reason Auburn is behind.
“Many schools in the conference and other large schools around the country have been doing this for 10 years or longer,” Addison said. “Our recycling program has only been around since 2005, but our progress this year shows what we can do if we keep expanding.”
Addison said Jacqueline Ware, who monitored the results for this year, and James Smith, the recycling truck driver, were a big part in RecycleMania.
“Those two people were a tremendous help,” Addison said. “Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did.”
Ware said she feels once students learn more about the contest, the results will continue to be successful.
Weekly measurements were taken from each area and results were reported weekly as pounds of recyclables collected per person.
Students living in either the Quad, Hill or Extension residential housing areas on campus had a chance to “Get Caught Recycling” each week and win prizes.
“We had a lot of participation from students this time, but if we could educate them about recycling and get the word out a little more, we can do even better in the future,” Ware said.
RecycleMania started in 2001 as a competition between Ohio University and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. It has rapidly grown into a big event, as 400 colleges participated this year.
As of week nine of the contest, Kalamazoo College in Michigan led the country in terms of campus-wide participation at 57 percent.
In the end, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the leader in overall weight collected with more than 1.3 million pounds.
To learn more about RecycleMania, visit www.recyclemaniacs.org.
For more on Auburn’s recycling efforts, go to www.auburn.edu/recycling.
