Recyclemania is a nationwide
collegiate competition that encourages students and faculty/staff to get
involved in the recycling initiative and expand their knowledge along the way.
With over 450 colleges participating nationwide, Reynolds decided to get
involved this year. The Environmental Sustainability Committee volunteered to
help the Recyclemania Reynolds team put together the 9 week competition full of
events.
Each week, a different event helped
to motivate the Reynolds community to get involved in recycling. The first two
weeks campus-wide surveys were conducted to help gauge the knowledge of
recycling. From there, weekly events were geared towards spreading knowledge
and increasing awareness. Along the way, students, faculty and staff
participated in recycling, using social media to get involved, and many came
out to see faculty and staff members tear through Mt. Trashmore retrieving
items that were discarded but could have been recycled. The college tracked how
many tons each campus recycled each week to add an element of an intercampus
competition along with the nationwide competition.
Mt. Trashmore went off without a
hitch on March 17 and Recyclemania 2015 at Reynolds is coming to a close. As
one of only 16 community colleges participating in the country, Reynolds has
done an outstanding job partaking in this competition and setting a precedent
for years to come.
Next week will be the last week
of Recyclemania with one last chance to participate on campus. There will be
recycling bins in designated locations around each campus to encourage everyone
to bring in their recycling from home or even encourage some spring cleaning in
your desk. This is the final opportunity to participate in this competition and
the last opportunity for Reynolds to push ahead of other colleges.
Recyclemania is a great way for
every college to expand their environmental knowledge and recycling habits. Although
this is just the first year for Reynolds, the college will be participating for
years to come and aiming to beat more colleges in the future. To learn more
about Reynolds Recyclemania, visit www.reynolds.edu/go/recycling.
