An environmentally friendly competition has once again come to the University. The RecycleMania competition started on Feb. 5 and will go until April 1. The University has been competing in the competition since 2002.
“We were one of the first colleges to pick up the national program. Now there’s like 300 colleges participating, and I think back in the day there was like a couple dozen,” Savannah Heck, RecycleMania intern, said. On March 24, RecycleMania will be taking over Friday Night Lights and will include a scavenger hunt event.
“This is the first one, so we’re hoping that it’s going to be an annual thing moving on from here, but for now it’s the first one. It’ll be fun to see what happens,” Heck said.
Though the scavenger hunt is open to everyone, only the first 30 people to show up will be able to participate in the hunt. The plan is to have participants in teams of five.
“There’s only so many people you can have before it becomes inefficient… That’s why we’re trying to limit five people per team as well, just making sure that everyone (has fair play),” Heck said.
Participants of Friday Night Lights get one service hour for their work, and those service hours will still be granted to those participating in the hunt.
“We’re keeping it because they’re still doing what they need to be doing,” Heck said.
RecycleMania is not just a competition between the dorms on campus; it is also an educational tool.
“That’s kind of what we’re trying to do here, just a quick way to educate people because the whole point of RecycleMania is changing behaviors. We want people to know the impact of the decisions they make,” Heck said.
This year RecycleMania is focusing on things that are recycled that are not recyclable, and recyclable things that are thrown away.
“Often times people throw things in the recycling like straws or cellophane wrap or Styrofoam, and they’re just not recyclable,” she said. “So what we’re trying to do is educate with the hope that it changes someone’s behavior eventually.”
Participants of the scavenger hunt will be looking for envelopes with trivia questions while they are going through their checklist of things to do. Prizes for the winners include mugs from Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts.
Friday Night Lights happens every Friday starting at 6:30 p.m. outside the theater on the second floor of the Union. As of 2010, Friday Night Lights has saved the University $77,500.
Other Ohio universities competing in RecycleMania include Miami, Ohio State and Wright State.
As of week four in the competition, Kriescher is in first at the University. The University itself is currently ranked 116th out of 173 universities with a 25.57 percent recycling rate as of week four.
