The campus community participates in a 10-week national competition between colleges and universities to promote recycling and reduce overall waste.
By Melissa Fowler '09
Virginia Wesleyan College's commitment to going green has the campus community participating in a 10-week event called RecycleMania, a national competition between colleges and universities to promote recycling and reduce overall waste.
As part of RecycleMania, the College will be holding several events this spring to promote recycling and educate students, faculty and staff about waste management. The first event will be a competition between dorms on campus to see which residential hall can recycle the most. This week-long event will begin Tuesday, March 25. The second event involves all Greek organizations on campus during Greek Week. On Tuesday, April 1, a weekend's worth of trash will be dumped on the Batten Lawn where Greek organizations will pull out recyclables.
Senior Vickie Brynildsen, past S.E.A.L. (Student Environmental Awareness League) president and co-organizer, said she heard about the event last year and immediately wanted the College to participate.
"Since Virginia Wesleyan has institutionalized recycling in the past two years, I felt RecycleMania would be a great way to raise the awareness of recycling," said Brynildsen.
Junior Amanda Ford, organizer, explained that RecycleMania started on campus in early January with data collecting. Behind the scenes, Ford and Brynildsen have been checking two recyclable dumpsters, one behind Boyd Dining Hall and the other behind the Physical Plant. The duo then reports to a Web site how much the College community is recycling on a weekly basis.
For the first week of RecycleMania, Ford said that the College community recycled 1.2 pounds per person and placed 83rd out of 150 institutions.
"That's kind of low…," she said, adding, "Some schools are doing at least five pounds per person." Ford noted that the average person generates 10 pounds of trash per day.
To boost up recycling numbers S.E.A.L. and members of the campus community participated in a Campus Wide Clean Up on Thursday, Feb. 21. Litter was collected and trash was separated from recyclables. Another similar event, the Lake Taylor Clean Up, will take place2 – 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 27.
Advertising for the event has been challenging, said Brynildsen, especially because the organizers do not want to use paper.
"Flyers and posters, which are paper, are great for getting the word out," said Brynildsen. "At the same time, we don't want to advertise recycling by using paper."
The Catch-22 situation has forced students to think outside the box and find alternative ways to promote the event. Ford said the group called upon the Office of Community Service for help to spread the word through e-mails and other ways that are environmentally friendly. Community Service is also arranging tours of the Tidewater Fiber Recycling Plant in Chesapeake, Va., for all students, faculty and staff.
In addition, Brynildsen reminds students that blue recycling bins installed this past summer are all over campus. "There are bins in every classroom, office and dorm," she said. "Everyone should have access to recycle."
During the 10 weeks of RecycleMania, 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. The main goal of this event is to increase student awareness of campus recycling and waste minimization.
For more information about Virginia Wesleyan's participation in RecycleMania, contact Amanda Ford at acford@vwc.edu or 757.816.6550.
For more information about what can or cannot be recycled, contact Director of Housekeeping and Grounds Mike Rigby at mrigby@vwc.edu or 757.455.3414.
03.09.08