RecycleMania is a friendly eight-week competition between universities across the country to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities.

Categories of the competition include per capita recycling, overall recycling rate as a percentage of total waste, minimization of trash, and recycling generated.

Competing universities report the amount of recyclables and trash collected weekly. These weekly results are published online so schools can monitor their progress and keep the competition fierce. The overall winning university will receive national press coverage and a trophy made from recycled materials.

In 2011, 630 schools in Canada and the United States competed. From those schools, 7.5 million faculty, staff, and students succeeded in recovering 91 million pounds of recyclables.

This year 540 schools have registered to compete.

Last year, UT finished third in the Southeastern Conference for per capita recycling. Jay Price, UT’s environmental coordinator, wants UT to finish first this time around.

“RecycleMania is a great way for UT to benchmark our recycling efforts with other universities nationwide,” Price said. “Our goal this year to place first in the SEC will require us to recycle a little more than 1.5 pounds per person, per week. With some extra effort from everyone on campus, I know we can do it.”

Over the next two months the campus community can look forward to a variety of fun, recycling-themed events. Here is a rundown of upcoming events:

Spotted Being Sustainable
February 6–10

All this week, UT Recycling staff and volunteers will be giving away coupons to people spotted recycling, carrying a reusable mug or water bottle, or performing other sustainable acts.

“Spotted Being Sustainable” (SBS) coupons are valid for a free beverage provided by Volunteer Dining. SBS is held in part to promote the Mug Project, an ongoing sustainability program to eliminate paper cup use on campus. The Mug Project was initiated by Volunteer Dining and UT Recycling. Since the project began in August 2011, more than 20,000 paper cups have been diverted from area landfills.

Residence Hall Recycling Competition
February 13–March 9

The third annual Residence Hall Recycling Competition (RHRC) is a month-long competition between campus residence halls to determine which hall can recycle the most pounds per resident.

Student residents are asked to collect unwanted plastics, aluminum, paper, and glass in recycling bins placed in every residence hall. Cardboard is also collected in specially marked bins located outside each residence hall.

Similar to the POWER Challenge, a comprehensive sustainability competition held each October, the RHRC will award points to residence halls that establish creative and fun programs for students. Interested student residents are encouraged to contact their RA with any program ideas or to obtain more information on the competition.

To kick off the RHRC, a Recycling Dorm Storm event will be held from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on February 15 and 16. On those nights, Recyclemaniacs will storm the dorms, collecting all recyclable materials.

Residents are invited to bring their recyclables to the lobby to get some free snacks and refreshments.

Following the completion of the RHRC on March 9, the winning hall will receive a catered party and the coveted Recycling Animal Trophy.

Landfill and Recycling Tour
March 5, noon to 4:00 p.m.

Have you ever wanted to know where all your trash and recyclables end up? Faculty, staff, and students are invited to jump on the Make Orange Green bus and join UT Recycling for a tour of the Chestnut Ridge Landfill and Rock-Tenn Recycling Center.

The bus leaves from outside the Hodges Library second-floor entrance at noon and will return at 4:00 p.m. The tour is a free event, but interested people must reserve a seat on the bus in advance. To reserve your seat, visit the RecycleMania website.

Recyclympics
March 14, 2:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Possibly the most fun day of RecycleMania is the day when athletic prowess and frenzied recycling culminates in what is known as Recyclympics. The third annual Recyclympics will be held at the Humanities Plaza outdoor amphitheater.

Faculty, staff, and students compete in ten Olympic-style, recycling-themed events. Crowd-pleasing favorites include the Phone Book Shot Put, Compact Disc-us Throw, and Bottle Cap-in-a-Haystack (of shredded paper).

Contestants can compete individually or as part of a team of up to four people. Recyclympics is free to enter. Those interested in participating in this fun and friendly competition can sign up at the Recyclympics website or just show up on the day.

Glory, fame, and gift certificate prizes will be awarded to Recyclympians who place first, second, and third in the individual and team categories. Additional bonus points will be awarded for competitive bravery and recycling tenacity.

“Gladiator apparel is encouraged, but there are no specific dress code requirements to enter and compete in Recyclympics. High heels or baggy jeans might not be the best clothing to compete in though,” said Price.

Paper Purge Party
March 19–23, all-day event

Who doesn’t love spring cleaning? During spring break, UT Recycling will canvas each office in every campus building in an attempt to hunt and capture as much recyclable paper as possible.

Faculty and staff are encouraged to purge their offices of any and all unwanted bulky paper items.

View a schedule of each building’s collection day here (pdf).  Accepted items include non-confidential office paper, envelopes, phonebooks, magazines, publications, tests, bound notebooks, and manuals—even paper with tape and staples on it.

Zero Waste Lunches
March 26, 28, and 30, from 11:00 to 2:00p.m. daily

Zero Waste Lunches will be held during the last week of the challenge at Morrill Dining, Arena Dining, and PCB Café.

During these waste-not-want-not lunches, UT Dining employees and volunteers will work together to compost 100 percent of leftover lunch food from these dining locations.

Employees will save waste created during food preparation, and volunteers will scrape leftover food waste from plates into compost bins. The food waste will be taken to the UT Recycling compost site adjacent to the UT Medical Center, where it will be turned into nutrient-rich soil for the UT Organic Farm.

For more information on the 2012 RecycleMania competition, visit www.recyclemaniacs.org. To learn more about UT Recycling’s efforts, or to volunteer with RecycleMania, visit the website or email recycle@utk.edu.

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Contact: Jay Price (974-3480, jayprice@utk.edu)

“Reducing, reusing, and recycling moves our nation toward an environmentally and economically greener, sustainable tomorrow,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.

In total, seventy-five universities competed in five categories: recycling, trash diversion, greenhouse gas reduction, organics reduction, and waste minimization. UT proved a strong competitor in the Southeastern Conference division, placing in several categories and winning one.

Before, during, and after the game against South Carolina on October 29, UT Recycling and dozens of volunteers canvassed campus tailgating areas collecting glass bottles, plastics, and aluminum cans, as well as food waste from Volunteer Village, Circle Park, Neyland Stadium skyboxes, and parking areas 9, 30, and G10.

“We had more volunteers and UT Recycling staff working harder that game than ever before. The effort was truly amazing. Even with fewer fans tailgating that game, we collected more recyclable material than any other game before or since,” said Jay Price, UT environmental coordinator.

As the only organics reduction competitor in the SEC, UT won the category and placed fifteenth nationally, collecting 0.025 pounds of compostable food waste per person.

UT finished second behind Louisiana State University in the SEC greenhouse gas reduction category and fifteenth nationally, saving 47.15 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions for the day.

UT finished third in the trash diversion category and thirty-fourth nationally, with 32.19 percent of waste avoiding the trash pile. The University of Kentucky overwhelmingly won this category, diverting 63.21 percent of waste from the trash.

UT finished fourth in the SEC recycling category and nineteenth nationally by collecting 0.234 pounds of recycling per person.

UT finished sixth in the waste minimization category and fifty-sixth nationally, generating 0.806 pounds of non recyclable trash per person. The University of Florida eclipsed competition in this category, generating only 0.215 pounds of trash per person.

Although UT’s totals were positive, Price knows Big Orange fans can perform even better in the upcoming 2012 football season.

“These results are encouraging, but we still see a lot of recyclable material being thrown in the trash can rather than the recycling bin. We’ve worked hard to pair up trash cans with recycling bins. Fans can really help by being conscientious and putting their bottles, cans, and cups in the right bin,” Price said.

UT’s game day food waste is composted at UT’s on-site composting facility, located across from the UT Medical Center. Glass, aluminum, plastics, paper, and cardboard collected by UT Recycling is taken to the Rock Tenn recycling facility in Knoxville.

For a complete list of results, visit the EPA website.

For more information about recycling on campus, visit the UT Recycling website here.

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C O N T A C T :

Jay Price (865.974.3480, jayprice@utk.edu)

The results have now been tallied and the winner is…the Apartment Residence Hall.

Apartment Residence Hall residents celebrated their victory with the grand prize: the POWER (Programs of Water, Energy, and Recycling) Challenge cup and a catered food party, co-sponsored by the United Resident Hall Council and the Office of Sustainability.

Students in Morrill Hall ask their neighbors to help save water by pledging to take shorter showers.

Overall efforts by student residents to use less energy and resources during the POWER Challenge resulted in energy savings in excess of $36,000.

“The challenge was an amazing achievement with many green successes in the residence halls,” said Courtney Washburn, AmeriCorps member and sustainability outreach coordinator.

Notable challenge achievements included volunteers collecting eight tons of recyclables, more than $21,000 in wastewater savings, and almost $7,500 in water savings. The amount of water saved could fill Neyland Stadium to a depth of six feet.

These figures are based on a comparison of energy and resource use from this past October and October 2008.

On October 13, a light bulb exchange in all residence halls resulted in students swapping 460 incandescent light bulbs for new CFL bulbs. This particular event is expected to save the campus approximately $7,300 in energy consumption, or 77,000 kWh, for the next nine months. CFL bulbs use one-fifth the energy of incandescent bulbs and last six to ten times longer on average.

In addition to measuring savings, students in the residence halls were encouraged to create and participate in fun, interactive events.

“Eco-Vols, RAs, and hall directors did a fantastic job. There were more hall and floor programs this year than in the past, which is an important component of the challenge. I was very impressed with everyone’s creativity and enthusiasm,” said Washburn.

Sustainability ideas included a lights-out event at Laurel Hall, a short-shower pledge campaign at Morrill Hall, and a green trivia game at the Apartment Residence Hall.

To mark National Sustainability Day on October 26, fifty residents attended the Black Out Bash. Attendees turned off their dorm room lights for an hour and carved pumpkins by moonlight in Presidential Courtyard.

For information on other Make Orange Green programs and initiatives, including sustainable living tips, visit http://environment.utk.edu.

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CONTACT:

Courtney Washburn (865.974.7780, cjwash@utk.edu)

Experts say household waste often increases more than 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. That means the holidays can have a negative impact on the environment.

However, there are ways to make the holidays more environmentally friendly.

“Small changes to our routines can help make the holiday season more fun and less wasteful,” said Gordie Bennett, UT Knoxville’s sustainability manager.

An informal poll of UT Knoxville faculty and staff members found some unique and easy tips for “greening” the holidays this season. Here are two more interesting sustainability-focused holiday tips from UT Knoxville’s faculty and staff:

“We are firm believers in re-gifting. We also use old paper grocery bags as wrapping paper. You can decorate it with stencils and paint, and it may end up being nicer than the gift! Also, as our tree lights fail over time, we replace them with more energy-efficient strands.” – Aly Chapman, laboratory section chief, College of Veterinary Medicine

Gordie Bennett adds: “My personal tip is to skip presents in favor of making a contribution to your loved one’s favorite charity. This reduces waste and helps make the holidays a little nicer for someone in need.”

Experts say household waste often increases more than 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. That means the holidays can have a negative impact on the environment.

However, there are ways to make the holidays more environmentally friendly.

“Small changes to our routines can help make the holiday season more fun and less wasteful,” said Gordie Bennett, UT Knoxville’s sustainability manager.

Jay Price and his family.

An informal poll of UT Knoxville faculty and staff members found some unique and easy tips for “greening” the holidays this season. Here are two more great energy-saving holiday tip from UT Knoxville’s faculty and staff:

“One cool green thing we do each year is to hand dip chocolates. My mom makes the centers with as many different ingredients as possible (like raisins or pecans). She then gives them out as gifts to her friends. She doesn’t wrap them—just buys nice boxes for them—then collects as many boxes back as she can for the next go-around.” – Jay Price, coordinator, UT Recycling

“I like to host a couple of holiday potlucks. Everyone is still asked to bring a dish, but we all cook together at my house instead of everyone doing it separately. This way, we pool our resources. The oven can bake several items at once or in a row, and you don’t have to buy an entire bag of sugar or shaker of sprinkles—we can all use the same products, which means everyone buys less. Half the party is the fun of cooking together—it also makes for some interesting moments of dodging a flying spoon, spilling someone’s drink, and taste-testing a new creation! The rest of the party is enjoying collectively what we’ve made.” – Anne Hulse, coordinator, Programs Abroad

Experts say household waste often increases more than 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. That means the holidays can have a negative impact on the environment.

However, there are ways to make the holidays more environmentally friendly.

“Small changes to our routines can help make the holiday season more fun and less wasteful,” said Gordie Bennett, UT Knoxville’s sustainability manager.

An informal poll of UT Knoxville faculty and staff members found some unique and easy tips for “greening” the holidays this season. Here are another two sustainability holiday tips from UT Knoxville’s faculty and staff:

“This year I will give ‘sustainable’ gifts when possible. I have purchased a compost pail for vegetable scraps, egg shells, etc., as one gift and will purchase a retractable outdoor clothesline as another gift.” – Jerri Daoust, administrative coordinator, College of Engineering

“Instead of buying candles or PlugIns or using other synthetic chemicals, I simmer orange slices and cinnamon sticks on my stove. This does require the use of energy, but it’s not something that is plugged in all day, nor does it run out so quickly that I have to constantly repurchase and generate trash from. I can pour the whole pot into my compost when I am done.” – Tiffany Morrison, safety coordinator, Biosystems Engineering and Soil Sciences

Experts say household waste often increases more than 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. That means the holidays can have a negative impact on the environment.

However, there are ways to make the holidays more environmentally friendly.

“Small changes to our routines can help make the holiday season more fun and less wasteful,” said Gordie Bennett, UT Knoxville’s sustainability manager.

An informal poll of UT Knoxville faculty and staff members found some unique and easy tips for “greening” the holidays this season. Here are two more sustainability-themed holiday tips from UT Knoxville’s faculty and staff:

“Three years ago my family decided we were wasting time, money, and energy shopping around for gifts for one another, so we quit. Instead, we all have stockings hung by the chimney with care, and each family member drops a small item in each of the stockings. We all love the new tradition. One by-product of this model is that we all have more time to enjoy get-togethers, musical presentations, and events in the city during the holiday season.” – Mary Anne Hoskins, associate director, College of Arts and Sciences

“After I’m done baking, I turn my oven off but leave the door slightly open, so it heats my home. We also take our Christmas tree to have it mulched at Ijams Nature Center after we’re done with it.” – Alisa Meador, assistant director, Programs Abroad

Experts say household waste often increases more than 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. That means the holidays can have a negative impact on the environment.

However, there are ways to make the holidays more environmentally friendly.

“Small changes to our routines can help make the holiday season more fun and less wasteful,” said Gordie Bennett, UT Knoxville’s sustainability manager.

An informal poll of UT Knoxville faculty and staff members found some unique and easy tips for “greening” the holidays this season, such as these from Sanna Serspinski of International Student and Scholar Services:

“At my house we try to follow my Nordic culture and be less wasteful. Fabric from old clothes becomes material for the kids’ art projects. Old shelving and storage furniture becomes storage for the garage or basement. We all like our sweaters so we also try to keep the house temperature cool, wear our woolens, and sip hot cider or cocoa.”

Experts say household waste often increases more than 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. That means the holidays can have a negative impact on the environment.

However, there are ways to make the holidays more environmentally friendly.

“Small changes to our routines can help make the holiday season more fun and less wasteful,” said Gordie Bennett, UT Knoxville’s sustainability manager.

An informal poll of UT Knoxville faculty and staff members found some unique and easy tips for “greening” the holidays this season. Here are two more energy-saving holiday tips from UT Knoxville’s faculty and staff:

“I am going to shop as locally as possible for Christmas. Another goal is not to use any plastic bag for gift shopping. I always load up on reusable bags.” – Courtney Washburn, AmeriCorps member and Sustainability Outreach coordinator

“I put a dimmer on my Christmas lights, reuse gift bags, and use old comics as wrapping paper.” – Josh Queener, photographer and producer, UT Video & Photo Department

Experts say household waste often increases more than 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. That means the holidays can have a negative impact on the environment.

However, there are ways to make the holidays more environmentally friendly.

“Small changes to our routines can help make the holiday season more fun and less wasteful,” said Gordie Bennett, UT Knoxville’s sustainability manager.

An informal poll of UT Knoxville faculty and staff members found some unique and easy tips for “greening” the holidays this season.

Here is another energy-saving holiday tip from UT Knoxville faculty and staff:

“I usually collect boxes that I would otherwise have to take to recycling and I try to use them for packing Christmas presents that I send to friends abroad or in the U.S. or give to family.” – Heather Grigsby, coordinator, Programs Abroad.