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THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8,2008
I
S.
I
Campus prepares
for RecycleMania
by Jocelyn Wright
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
While many Rice students may
treat the blue bins in the corner of
their dorm rooms like ordinary trash
eansthe RecycleManiacontesthopes
to change this.
RecycleMania is a 10-week na-
tionwide intercollegiate recycling
competition that started last week.
Rice is entered into the paper, alu-
minum, glass and plastic recycling
categories, as well as the waste
minimization category. Rice is in
its third year competing in Recy-
cleMania, one of 400 colleges and
universities participating across the
nation this year.
During the competition, at the end
of each week the Facilities, Engineer-
ing and Planning department collects
the respective categories of recycling
and weighs them. The data is then
compiled and reported to the Recy-
cleMania coodinators by Director of
Sustainability Richard Johnson. ITie
college "with the highest recycling
rate wins the competition.
WHAT RICE
RECYCLES
Rice is one of 400 compet-
ing colleges and univer-
sities currently in the
RecycleMania contest
nationwide. Rice is entered
in following five categories:
■ paper
■ aluminum
■ glass
■ plastic
■ waste minimization
"RecycleMania provides us with
the opportunity to compare our cur-
rent recycling performance*versus
previous years, while also allowing
for some friendly rivalries to develop
amongst in-state and peer institu-
tions," Johnson said.
Johnson said he is discussing
the possibility of making this year's
RecycleMania a competition be-
tween residential colleges with the
EcoReps. This idea is still in the early
stages of planning, so there is no
set proposal yet, Johnson said. Rice
had a 27 percent recycling rate for
the first week, which Johnson said
is a good rate.
"My experience with RecycleMa-
nia is that it takes several weeks
before you get a sense of how you'll
do versus other colleges," Johnson
said. "Nevertheless, if we were to
maintain a recycling rate of 27 per-
cent, we'd do well."
The Environmental Club held a
study break last Tuesday to promote
awareness about Recyclemania
with cinnamon rolls and recycling
information. Sid Richardson Col-
lege junior Jessica Coe, an Eco-
Rep who is working to organize
RecycleMania, said the club plans
to hold another study break in the
next few weeks.
"It can get confusing what types of
plastic and what types of cardboard
to recycle," Coe said. "We're just try-
ing to let people know what they can
recycle by getting that information
out there."
In an effort to raise awareness
about waste minimization, the
Environmental Club collected the
disposables students used at both
the North and South serveries in
one meal. 'Hie club made a sculpture
out of the discarded disposables to
show students the amount of waste
from a single meal.
"All of those materials were things
people took in the cafeteria and just
threw away," Coe said. "They weren't
really using them for their purpose as
take-out dishes, so we were just trying
to raise awareness about that."
Coe said the EcoReps were also
responsible for raising awareness
about RecycleMania at their indi-
vidual colleges.
Johnson said when Rice partici-
pated in RecycleMania three years
ago, it was the only school in the
state of Texas to do so. This year,
Texas has the third largest number
of participants in RecycleMania, with
22 schools.
"I think this is indicative of the
deepening environmental awareness
at colleges across the [U.S.], includ-
ing Texas," Johnson said.
Wiess College freshman Kait
Chura said she was excited Rice was
participating in RecycleMania.
"I think recycling is really impor-
tant for everyone in general and if
this brings awareness to recycling
there's no reason for it to be discour-
aged," Chura said. "It's a really good
opportunity for students of Rice to
learn how to utilize the recycling
we have."
National Engineers Week
on the sp«t
engineering competition
Open to all Rice students
Wednesday, February 20, 3-5:30pm
First pn.se $300
Second prize $200
Third prLfe $100
Teams of three will compete to solve a problem
under competition rules. Details of the problem
and a list of the materials provided to solve it
will be distributed to team captains about a
week before the competition You can find
information about last year's problem at
forum.rice.edu.
Register at forum.rice.edu by February 13th
The number of teams is limited
Soonsored by the Rice Global Engineering & Construction
t-orum, Hour Corp. ana the George R. Brown School
of Engineering
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February X7
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