The average person generates almost five pounds of trash each day or roughly 1.5 tons of solid waste per year. About 75 percent of solid waste is recyclable, yet only about 30 percent is actually reused. However, a tournament created at Ohio University hopes to help change this.
RecycleMania, an eight-week competition for college and university programs to promote waste reduction, kicked off Sunday.
“I think RecycleMania is a great opportunity to increase recycling on campus and my primary goal in my career here is to make recycling the social norm,” said Andrew Ladd, recycling and refuse manager at OU. “I hope to make recycling not just something that someone decides to do but something that people naturally do and RecycleMania brings attention to recycling and shows how easy it really is.”
The tournament, which was co-created by previous recycling and refuse manager Ed Newman in 2001, features 630 schools from throughout North America, including OU, competing to increase student awareness of campus recycling and see which school recycles the most.
“It has been gratifying to have helped start this,” said Newman, who is now a board member at RecycleMania. “It has brought interest internationally and has gotten schools to do more than what they would do otherwise.”
Last year, OU finished 43rd in the competition. Ladd said he hopes to get at least 32nd.
“As far as long term goals though, I just want to get more information and more inspiration around recycling out there.”
In 2012 OU won seven out of eight categories in the Mid-American Conference and had 43.79 percent recovery rate of targeted materials.
The targeted materials for the competition are paper, cardboard, glass, aluminum, steel and plastic.
“We always look forward to RecycleMania,” said Steve Mack, director of Facilities Management. “It is one of Andrew’s main priorities and I know he will help us succeed.”
The winning schools will receive an award made out of recyclable materials and earn the right to host that category’s special traveling trophy for the coming year.
“Every action of recycling may seem somewhat small, but together everything adds up to significant change and savings of recourses,” Ladd said.
bc822010@ohiou.edu
