On Jan. 18, the State University of New York at New Paltz will begin participating in “RecycleMania,” a 10-week, friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to help promote waste reduction activities and recycling efforts on campuses.
Brian Pine, director of Facilities Operations and Maintenance and the college’s recycling coordinator, said that even though New Paltz has been ramping up its recycling program for the past several years, RecycleMania will help to rally student, faculty and staff participation in recycling and waste prevention programs.
Pine said that from Jan. 18 through March 28 the college will report recycling and trash data, which will then be ranked according to who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate. With each week’s reports and rankings, participating schools will watch how their results fluctuate against other schools and their own results to rally their campus communities to reduce and recycle more.
Pine also said that participating in RecycleMania is part of the campus’ larger commitment to The American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, an institution-wide program that New Paltz became a member of last August. The Presidents Climate Commitment is “a high-visibility effort to address global warming by garnering institutional commitments to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions, and to accelerate the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth’s climate,” as stated on its Web site, www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org.
“There are many more opportunities for New Paltz to improve upon its recycling,” said Pine, “not only by reducing our waste through improved recycling, but also by monitoring more closely what we bring in so we have less trash to begin with. I’m excited about this program. I know that our campus community will embrace this sustained effort, which will improve upon our existing program.”
Pine said that the overall goals for RecycleMania are to: have a fair and friendly recycling competition; increase recycling participation by students and staff; heighten awareness of schools’ waste management and recycling programs; expand economic opportunities while addressing environmental issues in a positive way; lower waste generated on-campus by reducing, reusing and recycling; and organize this event successfully so it can be repeated and possibly expanded in the future.
Pine added that once the program is up and running, the college will offer updates on New Paltz’ involvement in RecycleMania on the college’s Green Web site at www.newpaltz.edu/green.
For more information about RecycleMania, visit www.recyclemania.org, or contact Pine at (845) 257-3322 or pineb@newpaltz.edu.
