The intercollegiate RecycleMania competition has begun — with Wartburg College showing a 16 percent recycling rate at the outset.
The eight-week competition sponsored by the College and University Recycling Council,will determine winners based on the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, and the highest recycling rate.
Anne Duncan, Wartburg’s sustainability coordinator, Emily Rogers ’14, the Recyclemania student leader, and 10 other students have been measuring Wartburg’s waste for the last two weeks — comparing it to other colleges as well as to each residence hall on campus.
“As a campus whole, we consumed nearly 28 pounds of waste per person, including students, faculty and staff,” Duncan said. “We did have a 16 percent recycling rate, which is pretty good, but certainly leaves room for improvement.”
A recent trash audit of various campus dumpsters determined that an average of 71 percent of the trash could have been recycled. That equates to a $35,000 savings.
Current standings in the residence hall competition, based on pre-competition measurements, are:
- Löhe Hall 17.97%
- The Residence 9.62%
- Grossmann Hall 8.15%
- Knights Village 4.31%
- Clinton Hall 4.2%
- The Complex 3.61%
- Founders Hall 3.18%
- The Manors 1.18%
“These numbers indicate the percentage of waste recycled,” Rogers said. “To move up in the ranking, residence halls must reduce trash and increase recycling.
With 93 percent recyclable trash found in the residence hall trash audit, Rogers said halls have a lot of opportunities to move up in the standings.
“We will continue to measure the waste and recycling until Winter Break,” she added.
All the details for RecycleMania are at https://www.wartburg.edu/sustainability/.
