UW Leads MWC in Recycling Competition

March 11, 2013

Halfway through the RecycleMania 2013 competition, the University of Wyoming once again leads its Mountain West Conference competitors in the per-capita results.

Through the third week of the competition, UW has recycled 54,120 pounds of materials. This will result in cumulative greenhouse gas reductions equivalent to 13 households or 30 cars off the road or 151 metric tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide) equivalent.

“The main goal is to save energy by recycling and working toward the president’s climate commitment, but I also really want to beat CSU in this competition,” says Eric Bryant, member of the UW Campus Sustainability Committee. “They are already ahead of us in the total pounds of recycled waste, and we cannot allow them to take the Mountain West ‘per-capita crown’ from Pokes Nation -- let’s go WYO!”

RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities, says Tod Scott, UW waste stream manager. The official competition runs through March 30, so only three weeks remain.

Each spring, colleges across the United States and Canada report the amount of recycling and trash collected each week and, in turn, are ranked in various categories based on who recycles the most on a per capita basis. They also are ranked based on which schools have the best recycling rate as a percentage of total waste, and which schools generate the least amount of combined trash and recycling.

 “With each week’s updated ranking, participating schools follow their performance against other colleges and use the results to rally their campus to reduce and recycle more,” Scott says.

In addition to UW, 522 colleges are registered to compete this year. More information about the competition can be found here. For the location of bins and other UW recycling information, click here.

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