Ed Newman, Recycling and Refuse Manager

IRC 2010 Annual Conference

Indianapolis, Indiana

May 5, 2010

RECYCLEMANIA Inter-collegiate recycling competition

What got the competition

started?

• Residence hall trash —70% of campus total

• 8000 of 21,000 students live on campus

Difficult to get student’s attention

Half are new residents each year

– Beer

– Social Life

– School

– Personal SWM habits

―Perfect Storm‖ leading to compete

• OU/Miami sports rivals/benchmark/state schools

• Both noted pro-active recycling leaders in Ohio

• Both determined about 70% of Campus Trash came

from Residence Halls.

• OU likes to taunt Miami!

Pre-College

Orientation

Move-in

How to move recycling up the priority scale?

How to get it to be second nature?

We met and developed RecycleMania

Goals

• Fair and friendly competition

• Increase recycling

• Have a successful competition

Results

• Interest soared at both schools

• Ohio — Administration all

over it

• Miami — Had more support

from students

• Baseline data for auxiliary

parts of campus

Participation Growth

2001: 2 schools

2002: 4 schools

2003: 8 schools

2004: 17 schools

2005: 43 schools

2006: 93 schools

2007: 201 schools

2008: 400 schools

2009: 510 schools

2010: 607 schools, 49

States, Can. & Qatar

Total wt. in 10 wks. 2001 534,710 lbs 268 tons

Total wt. in 10 wks. 2010 84,000,000 lbs 29,300 tons

Students involved 2001 14,550

Students involved 2010 >5,000,000

Total faculty/staff 2010 ~1,300,000

8 Competitions to choose from

now1. Per Capita Classic – lbs per person

2. Waste Minimization Rate – Overall Waste

Generation

3. Grand Champion – Highest Recycling Rate

4. Gorilla Prize – Most Recycled

Per Capita Targeted Material

Competitions

5. Food Service Organic

Waste

6. Bottles and Cans

7. Cardboard

8. Mixed Paper

Goals of Recyclemania

• Have a fair and friendly recycling competition.

• Heighten awareness of schools' waste management and recycling programs.

• Lower waste generated on-campus by reducing, reusing and recycling.

• Provide a catalyst for colleges to build and expand waste reduction programs on campus.

• Build administrative support for recycling on campus.

Some Positive Outcomes

• Princeton, Pierce and Kaplan School Raters ask if school participated in RecycleMania

• NCAA negotiations for collaborating

• US EPA and Retrac

• Corporate sponsors

• American College and Universities Presidents Climate Commitment

• Linking up with AASHE

• Closely linked with CURC

Resources

• Technical support hotline

• Archive of sample promotional materials

• Promotional strategies

• Sample case studies

• MySpace & Facebook networking site

• Professionally designed outreach

materials• http://listserv.brown.edu/?SUBED1=RECYC-L&A=1

www.recyclemaniacs.org

Target your competition

Sponsors & Partners

Indiana Schools Competing in

2010

Butler University (Competition Division)

DePauw University (Benchmark Division)

Grace College and Theological Seminary (Benchmark

Division)

Indiana State University (Benchmark Division)

Indiana University-Bloomington (Competition Division)

Marian University (Benchmark Division)

Purdue University-Calumet Campus (Benchmark

Division)

Purdue University-Main Campus (Competition Division)

University of Notre Dame (Competition Division)

Please Steal our Stuff

Graffiti Wall 2003

Various images used

Trophies and more posters

Posters and Trash Outfit

Dumpster Dive Project

Loyola University Chicago

Point Loma Nazarene University

Connecticut College

Keene State College

Dumpsters/Recycling Areas and

Apparel as points of

Communication

Residence Challenge

• Post-it notes for RA’s and

RD’s

• $200 for 650 pads

Santa Clara University

Dorm Storm

Raffle Night

Residence Challenge – Dining Hall

Theme

Other ideas we’ve tried

• Scoreboards

• Bulletin Boards

• Inter-campus letters to the editor

• Get your school president involved

• Art Car

• Chalk – Sidewalks/Classrms.

• Bathroom Stalls and Mirrors

• Departmental Newsletters

Art Van

Find unique spots to communicate

Half-time RecycleMania Rally

Adopt-a-Games

Dining Hall Theme Night

Trash Dance Posters

Some Trash Dance Apparel

Marty and Stewie Night-

RecycleMania Theme

A Replicable Model• Ohio Recycling Challenge

– Grade Schools-2009

– Businesses-2010

– Communities-2010

• Game Day Challenge-2009

• Greek RecycleMania-2010

Inter-State Competition?

• Pennsylvania Grade Schools

Competing

• California developing recycling

competition

• Louisiana and other state(s) interested

too.

Can you compete?

In the end everybody WINS!

Alec Cooley

RecycleMania Program Manager

(843) 278 7686

helpline@recyclemaniacs.org

http://recyclemaniacs