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     Recycling?

 
Rutgers University takes 1^st Place in RecycleMania competition:

§             Food Waste Organics Recycling

§             The Gorilla Prize (highest gross tonnage of recyclables, regardless of campus population)

Competition Dates: January 27 – April 5, 2008

What is RecycleMania?
RecycleMania is a friendly competition among college and university recycling programs in the United States that provides campus communities with a fun, proactive activity in waste reduction.  Over a ten week period, campuses compete in different contests to see which institution can collect the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita or have the highest recycling rate.

RecycleMania Goals

·         Have a friendly recycling competition.

·         Increase awareness of and participation in campus recycling and waste minimization programs among students, faculty, staff and visitors.

·         Expand economic opportunities while addressing environmental issues in a positive manner.

·         Decrease the amount of waste generated on campus by reducing, reusing and recycling.

What are acceptable recyclable materials?

Ø      Paper

·         Catalogs

·         Hard and soft bound books

·         Junk mail

·         Magazines

·         Newspaper

·         Office paper (all colors)

·         Phone books

Ø      Containers

·         #1 through #7 plastic (e.g., soda, water, juice, laundry detergent bottles)

·         Aluminum cans

·         Glass

Ø      Cardboard

Ø      Food Services Organics

Why recycle?  Does it really make a difference?

In 2005 Rutgers University ’s recycling program resulted in the reduction of 4,405.10 metric tons of carbon equivalent introduced into the atmosphere.  That is equivalent to the following:

·         Removing 3,480 passenger cars from the road for one year (based on CO2E annually emitted per car).

·         The annual emissions from the power consumption of 2,070 households (based on annual emissions per household).

·         37,575 barrels of crude oil (based on CO2 emissions per barrel).

·         374,433 tree seedlings grown for 10 years (based on CO2 sequestrations per tree).

·         1,841,331 gallons of gasoline (based on CO2 emissions per gallon).

·         5,418 tons of waste recycled instead of landfilled (based on CO2E emissions per ton of waste landfilled).
 

Recycling Facts

·         Did you know that the average college student produces 640 pounds of solid waste each year!

·         Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.

·         Every day Americans use enough steel and tin cans to make a steel pipe that runs from New York to Los Angeles …AND BACK!!

·         Today, 62 million newspapers will be printed in the U.S.A. , and 44 million will be thrown away.  That means that the equivalent of approximately 500,000 trees will be dumped into land fills this week!

·         Americans discard 4 million tons of office paper every year.  This is enough to build a 12 foot high wall of paper from New York to California !

·         Glass never wears out.  It can be recycled forever!

·         Enough energy is saved by recycling one aluminum can to run a television set for three hours to light one 100 watt bulb for 20 hours!

Rutgers University Weekly Recycling Totals

Rutgers University Registration Data

RecycleMania Home Page

        RecycleMania Results 2007

Resources 2008

For questions or comments about this site, contact web master
Last Updated: 01/30/2008

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