Recyclemania 2009

Avoid generating trash. Try to use only recyclable and reuseable materials.

Check out our UC Davis Recycling Guide and What Do I Do With My...? Guide for tips on helping UC Davis win!

Recyclemania is a nationwide, intercollegiate recycling competition designed to advocate waste reduction practices on college and university campuses. Higher learning facilities create vast amounts of waste that requires management to dispose of it. The competition targets consumer paper, plastic, and metal materials, as well as food waste organics. Recyclemania provides a chance for environmentally friendly campuses to earn national recognition by having their sustainable practices ranked against other institutions. Recyclemania aims to aid development of emerging campus recycling programs, as well as incite improvement on already existing recycling programs like we have at UC Davis with R4.

Last year, UC Davis ranked eighth nationally, with an average recycling rate of 39.59%.

UC Davis has competed in Recyclemania since 2005, and this is the first year that the whole UC Davis campus will be involved. The diversion numbers we send to Recyclemania will include the total volume and weights of waste and recyclables collected from the entire campus. This includes uniting the over 40,000 students, staff, and faculty occupying the UC Davis Campus. In prior competition years, University participation only included the residence halls areas, Segundo, Tercero, and Cuarto battling against each other to accumulate the largest volume of recyclables per person. Student Housing is very involved with Recyclemania, as well as many other sustainable initiatives to promote a green future.

Last year, two lab buildings, Briggs Hall and Tupper Hall, as well as two office buildings, Sproul Hall and University Services, faced off. R4 staff assistants audited their waste receptacles, and the winning buildings, University Services and Briggs Hall, had the least amount of recyclables in their trash bins.

This year we are hoping to get all campus buildings and departments involved, including Dining Services, ASUCD and The Coffee House, Student Housing and more.

Stanford ranked first in total volume of recyclables last year, which provides UC Davis an incentive to recycle as much as ecologically possible to defeat the Cardinal.

The official competition begins on February 1. A two-week trial period starts January 18 that is not counted towards the overall standings. This provides participating schools an opportunity to adjust their competition strategies and diversion tracking methods.

Student participation is in Recyclemania easy. All students have to do is simply recycle as much of paper, plastic, metals, and cardboard as possible. This includes taking an extra second to actually think when disposing of waste, making sure everything is placed in the appropriate receptacle. Do not settle for the convenience of the nearest one, help UC Davis win Recyclemania by putting recyclables in their respective container.

Staff and Faculty should continue to use the recycling systems in place in their building. However, just like students, they take the time to think about where their waste is ending up. Is it going to take up space in a landfill, or will it be recycled and used to create something new?

If any student, staff or faculty member, department, organization, club, or facility on campus would like more information regarding Recylemania, or would like to help in anyway, please contact the R4 office at (530) 752-7456.