Centre News

Starting Friday, Jan. 20, Centre will begin its annual quest to
recycle as much as possible as part of RecycleMania, which lasts
until March 31.
During RecycleMania, the entire Centre community has the
opportunity to reduce waste, increase recycling and raise
awareness of conservation issues.

Starting Friday, Jan. 20, Centre will begin its annual quest to recycle as much as possible as part of RecycleMania.

“It’s important for everyone to participate in order to reduce waste, increase recycling and raise awareness of conservation issues across campus,” says Cheryl Coulter, Centre’s recycling coordinator.

A friendly competition and benchmarking tool for North American colleges and universities, RecycleMania promotes waste reduction activities across campus and throughout the community. During the event, which lasts ten weeks until March 31, Centre and other participating schools will report recycling amounts, and are then ranked based on merits including the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita and the highest recycling rate.

“With each week’s reports and rankings, participating schools watch how their results fluctuate against other schools and use this to rally their campus communities to reduce and recycle more,” says Coulter.

The period of Jan. 20 to Feb. 3 will be a trial period, and numbers from the remaining eight weeks of RecycleMania will be calculated for the competition.

“We are registered in the Stephen K Gaski Per Capita Classic Division — schools compete to see which can collect the largest combined amount of paper, cardboard and bottles and cans per person,” Coulter says.

RecycleMania is one of many ways Centre strives toward environmental sustainability and responsibility. The Student Government Association recently approved funding for water-bottle filling stations in Young, to be installed later this year. In late 2011, Centre students visited the Mother Ann Lee Hydroelectric Station, from which Centre buys Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to help subsidize hydroelectric production. Also in late 2011, two American chestnut saplings were planted in front of the Guest Cottage in conjunction with the Arbor Day Foundation’s TreeCampusUSA program. To read more about Centre’s sustainability efforts, click here.

Through RecycleMania, the Centre community has the opportunity to learn about how much waste it produces while joining together in a group effort to reduce that waste.

“The overall goals for RecycleMania are to have a fair and friendly recycling competition, increase recycling participation by students, faculty and staff, heighten awareness of our recycling program and lower waste generated on campus by reducing, reusing and recycling,” Coulter says.

In the end, the event is less about the competition than it is about the community’s role in environmentally responsibility.

“This is a way for us to give back to the environment,” Coulter says. “Even if we don’t win the RecycleMania competition, we are all winners in the end.”

Have comments, suggestions, or story ideas? E-mail elizabeth.trollinger@centre.edu with your feedback.

Centre College, founded in 1819 and chosen to host its second Vice Presidential Debate in 2012, is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges, at 42nd in the nation, and ranks 27th for best value among national liberal arts colleges. Forbes magazine ranks Centre 34th among all the nation’s colleges and universities and has named Centre in the top five among all institutions of higher education in the South for three years in a row. Centre is also ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News for its study abroad program. For more, click here.