University Times

Pitt proved itself the 429,292-pound gorilla when it collected enough recyclables to land in the top 10 percent among all participants in the RecycleMania challenge’s competition division.

RecycleMania’s Gorilla Challenge prize goes to the school that collects the highest gross tonnage of recyclables during the 10-week campus recycling competition.

The 429,292 pounds collected on the Pittsburgh campus topped competing Big East schools and placed the University at No. 29 among 346 competitors across the United States and Canada. Rutgers won the Gorilla Challenge with more than 2.54 million pounds.

In the per capita competition, Pitt weighed in at 12.02 pounds per person, good for a No. 140 ranking. Of 346 competitors, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy won this competition with 81.75 pounds per person.

Preliminary University figures indicated the campus had just missed its internal goal of collecting 15 pounds per person (see April 15 University Times), but those figures included recyclables collected through all 10 weeks of the challenge, said Laura Zullo, Facilities Management’s senior manager of capital and special projects. Although the competition is 10 weeks long, RecycleMania considers the first two weeks a trial period and includes only the last eight weeks of the competition in its final calculations, she said.

In RecycleMania’s grand champion competition, which recognizes the top achievement in recycling and source reduction combined, Pitt ranked No. 144 of 267 competitors with a cumulative recycling rate of 25.23 percent. California State University-San Marcos took first place with 71.82 percent.

Final results were released April 16 at www.recyclemaniacs.org. The competition, which ended March 27, is a program of the RecycleMania steering committee in coordination with the College and University Recycling Coalition. It pits colleges and universities against each other in a number of recycling challenges aimed at raising awareness and increasing recycling on campuses across the United States and Canada.

The Pittsburgh campus participated last year in the non-competitive benchmarking division as a way to promote recycling in the dorms, but moved up to the competition division, expanding its efforts to include faculty and staff for the 2010 challenge, which began Jan. 17.

The challenge includes competitions for waste reduction, recycling per capita as well as overall and targeted materials collections.

In the waste minimization category, in which participants strive to produce the least amount of municipal solid waste (trash and recyclables), Pitt ranked No. 107 with 47.64 pounds per person. North Lake College topped the list of 199 competitors, producing only 6.17 pounds of waste per person during the challenge.

In targeted recyclables competitions:

• For corrugated cardboard, Pitt ranked No. 42 overall and No. 1 among Big East schools with 7.39 pounds per person. Kalamazoo College collected 21.23 pounds per person to take first place among 231 schools competing.

• For paper, Pitt ranked No. 121 with 3.83 pounds per person. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering topped the list of 223 participants with 30.71 pounds per person.

• For bottles and cans, Pitt ranked No. 139 with 0.8 pounds per person. Ursinus College was No. 1 among 223 competitors, with 19.44 pounds per person.

Noting that Pitt placed in the top 10 percent in the Gorilla Challenge and in the top 20 percent for collecting cardboard, Zullo said she was pleased with the results. “In the remaining categories, we were pretty much middle of the road, but we have to remember that we’re in the middle of the road with schools that care enough about recycling to enter the competition. I have to believe we’re well above the curve for all schools nationwide. Not bad for only our second year in the competition,” she said.

—Kimberly K. Barlow