With victories in 2002 and 2003, and a third place finish in 2005, Recycle Mania was a chance for the University to show off its recycling program.

BGSU used to be the school to beat when it came to campus recycling, but this past year, it did not participate in the program.

Miami University, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Oregon State all competed against one another to be the number one school when it came to recycling.

Additionally, there have been no plans to participate during this upcoming year according to Erica Bruielly, assistant to the recycling coordinator at the University.

“It’s kind of a shame we don’t have plans this year, but that’s usually in March. You never know, things could change,” Bruielly said.

Scott Euler, who is in charge of recycling at the University, said, “We feel that everybody is being educated on recycling from kids, and we feel that the advertising is not as necessary as when we started.”

MacLean Purdy, sophomore, said when he was in high school, recycling wasn’t a priority.

“Most of the kids didn’t care. Here, I think people are more aware of their surroundings and what the impact is on the world,” he said.

Instead of participating in programs like Recycle Mania, Euler is trying to get the program to be more active on campus.

“We are trying to make sure we are out to the football games,” he said. “It’s hard to get to all the tents, but there are a lot of chances to promote and to collect recyclables.”

The 10 students employed by the program attend campus events such as picnics, making sure recycling bins are set out. They then collect the trash and send it in to a processing plant.

The recycling program has collected 806 tons of materials this year. During 2001 there was a 12 percent increase in recycling during Recycle Mania, and over 879 tons of material was collected.

Bruielly said during 2002 and 2005, recycling also increased during the program, but exact numbers were not available.

Nate Goehring, senior, who helped out during Recycle Mania, said it was interesting to see how other schools ran their recycle programs, and to see the University’s program “crush them all.”

“I made sure to drink lots of bottled and canned products,” he said.

Euler said without recycling on campus, all of the collected materials would just end up at the Wood County landfill.

Instead of paying $38.05 per ton at a landfill, the program sends recyclables to recycling plants in Toledo, which are willing to pay for the materials.

The recycling program is able to prevent 30 percent of the waste created at the University from entering the landfill, Bruielly said.

“That’s incredible,” Purdy said when he heard how much was prevented from going to the landfill. “I didn’t think we recycled that much. I thought people were lazy.”

Despite the perception that may be out there, students do care enough to recycle.

“University students and staff should be proud of what a great job they are doing,” Bruielly said.