University at Buffalo
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over an 8-week period each spring, colleges across the United States and Canada report the amount of recycling and trash collected each week and are in turn ranked in various categories based on who recycles the most on a per capita basis, as well as which schools have the best recycling rate as a percentage of total waste and which schools generate the least amount of combined trash and recycling. With each week’s updated ranking, participating schools follow their performance against other colleges and use the results to rally their campus to reduce and recycle more. National recognition is provided to the winning school in each category on the RecycleMania website and in a national press release. Winning schools receive an award made out of recyclable materials, and win the right to host that category’s special traveling trophy for the coming year. Goals of RecycleMania: motivate students and staff to increase recycling efforts and reduce waste generation; generate attention and support for campus recycling programs; encourage colleges to measure and benchmark recycling activity in their effort to improve their programs over time; have a fair and friendly competition.

Throughout the 2011 RecycleMania competition UB collected and reported data on the amount of recycling, composting and garbage generated on our campuses. Our campaign was heavily promoted across campus by a number of different groups including the Office of Sustainability, University Libraries, Athletics, Campus Dining and Shops, Student Life, the Student Association’s Environmental Affairs Department, and student groups including the Environmental Network and Engineers for a Sustainable World. During RecycleMania weekly competitions such as Caught Green Handed and our “I Recycle, Do You?” Facebook promotions had a tremendous impact on raising the profile of recycling across campus and encouraging people to recycle. Over the duration of the campaign we watched our recycling totals steadily increase, with only a slight expected decrease during spring break. We are proud to report that the impact of our 2011 RecycleMania efforts paid off, with an overall increase in the amount of material diverted from the landfill. The first week of the competition we generated 53,481 pounds of recycling and 8,057 pounds of compost, and at its close we generated 54,573 pounds of recycling and 9,212 pounds of compost.