The Traveler

Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Stephen Ironside UA students competed in the recycling competition RecycleMania for 10 weeks, shown in these bins in the Northwest Quad Lobby.

The UA is a first-time competitor and winner of two categories in "RecycleMania," a national recycling competition.

Among the six universities participating in the Southeastern Conference, the UA won in the categories of Waste Minimization - for producing the least amount of municipal solid waste a person, and Grand Champion - for having the largest amount of recycling a person and the smallest amount of solid waster a person, according to a press release.

"What we did was a concerted effort to get students, faculty and staff more involved in recycling," said Steve Voorhies, manager of media relations.

Facilities management led the drive with involvement from Gary Enzor, head of recycling and solid waste, and Nick Brown, executive assistant for sustainability, Voorhies said.

Also involved were UA housing and custodial services, as well as the athletic department, which led recycling at sports events.

"[The athletic department's] contributions from basketball games helped our totals," he said.

"We did a great job this year," Brown said. "I'm proud of how UA housing and several of the Greek houses performed, especially compared to historical levels of recycling."

During the 10-week period of the contest, the UA collected 271,846 pounds of paper, cardboard, cans and bottles, an average of 13.59 pounds per person, according to the press release. This amounted to a 15 percent increase in recyclable collections over the same period last year.

"We offered cash prizes for the residence halls based on how much they collected and also on the efforts they made to educate the students in their hall about recycling and RecyleMania," said Linda Campbell, associate director of resident facilities for UA housing, according to the press release.

Buchanon-Droke Hall - which consists of 40 students - received best performance for collecting more than 26 pounds of recyclable material a person, according to the press release.

Buchanon-Droke Hall also received best mid-point performance for having the most recycling done after the first five weeks of competition, Voorhies said.

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