Campus continues competition in RecycleMania challenge!

RELEASED: February 28, 2008

DANVILLE, KY—On your mark, get set, RECYCLE! RecycleMania, which kicked off on Centre College's campus in January, is a competition involving more than 375 colleges and universities nationwide to see which institution can collect the largest amount of recyclable materials in a 10-week period. Centre has been working hard to recycle as much as possible during the past five weeks.

Campuses have until April 5 to see who can take the prize in four categories: largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest total amount of recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita and highest recycling rate.

With the help of Cheryl Coulter, Centre's recycling coordinator, the College is already hard at work to exceed the campus recycling goal of 55 tons set for August 2007 through August 2008. This is a five-ton increase over last year's target. RecycleMania should help catapult the campus toward new recycling records.

Increased recycling on campus will also help fulfill the tangible action component of the provisions outlined in the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). Last year, Centre President John Roush joined higher education leaders of more than 400 other institutions across the country in endorsing the goals of this pact. As one of the Commitment's earliest supporters, Roush is also recognized as a member of the ACUPCC Leadership Circle.

By signing the commitment, member institutions agree to work toward creating a comprehensive institutional action plan moving toward environmental impact neutrality. While participating institutions are required to pledge at least two actions to the cause, Centre has made three pledges in an effort to decrease its environmental footprint.

Those pledges are: 1) Establish a policy that all new campus construction will be built to at least the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Silver standard or equivalent; 2) Adopt an energy-efficient appliance purchasing policy, requiring purchase of ENERGY STAR certified products in all areas for which such ratings exist; and 3) Participate in the Waste Minimization component of the national RecycleMania competition, and adopt three or more associated measures to reduce waste.

According to the RecycleMania Web site, certain on-campus facilities tend to produce most of campus waste. Residence halls and dining halls have been the largest producers of campus waste—from 30 to 70 percent of campus trash. Data from waste audits conducted at these buildings suggest that up to half of all residence hall trash is recyclable.

"[RecycleMania] is another push to encourage recycling on our campus," says Preston Miles, John C. Walkup Professor of Chemistry and chair of the President’s Climate Commitment Advisory Committee. "I think this is really something that's starting to attract some interest on campus."

Centre collects plastic bottles, aluminum and steel cans, cardboard, fiberboard, magazines, newspaper, mixed paper and clean trash and grocery bags. Recycling containers are set up in every building on campus.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.