University Times

Pitt came close to meeting its recycling goal of 12 pounds per person in the 2011 RecycleMania competition.

The Pittsburgh campus tallied 11.92 pounds per person in the eight-week competition that wrapped up April 2, said Laura Zullo, Facilities Management’s senior manager of energy initiatives.

That was good for a No. 142 finish out of 363 schools competing in the category. Ranking No. 1 per capita was Union College of Schenectady, N.Y., with 55.69 pounds.

The competition is a program of the RecycleMania steering committee in coordination with the College and University Recycling Coalition. Final results were released April 18.

RecycleMania 2011 pitted 630 colleges and universities in a nationwide effort to promote recycling and reduce waste. Together the schools recovered 91 million pounds of organic and recyclable materials, saving the release of greenhouse gases equivalent to the annual emissions from more than 52.8 million passenger cars, according to competition organizers.

Zullo said she was pleased with this year’s competition. “Our primary reason for participating is to increase recycling awareness within the University community, particularly with our students. We work each year with Housing and Food Services, Residence Life and the student group Free the Planet to coordinate the event. We are particularly pleased with the work that Free the Planet does each year to promote the competition. It’s nice to work with such an enthusiastic and responsible group of students,” she said.

Pitt’s highest ranking overall came in the Gorilla Prize category, in which schools compete for the highest gross tonnage of recyclables collected. The campus ranked No. 26 out of 363 schools in the category, collecting 473,247.5 pounds.

Rutgers University took first place in the category, collecting more than 3.05 million pounds.

In the grand champion competition, which measures recycling as a percentage of total waste generated, Pitt ranked No. 164 out of 288 schools with 26.16 percent. California State-San Marcos topped the category with 79.69 percent.

The Pittsburgh campus ranked No. 99 out of 181 schools in the waste minimization category in which schools compete to produce the least solid waste per person. Pitt tallied 45.56 pounds per person; North Lake College in Irving, Texas, ranked No. 1 with 3.07 pounds.

In individual categories for recycling targeted materials, Pitt ranked:

• No. 43 of 231 schools in collecting corrugated cardboard, with 7.43 pounds per person. Union College ranked No. 1 with 25.07 pounds.

• No. 115 of 226 schools in collecting paper, with 3.69 pounds per person. Stetson University in Deland, Fla., ranked No. 1 with 25.03 pounds.

• No. 117 of 131 schools in food service organics, collecting 0.19 pounds per person. Brandeis University topped the category with 39.01 pounds.

• No. 139 of 219 schools in bottles/cans, with 0.8 pounds per person. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass., ranked No. 1 with 13.14 pounds.

RecycleMania also enables schools to compare their results with various peer groups.

Among Big East Conference schools, Pitt ranked No. 1 in paper, corrugated cardboard and bottles/cans and took second place in the grand champion, Gorilla Prize, per capita and food service organics categories.

According to Zullo, Pitt’s Big East rankings improved over last year, when the campus took first place in just one category — corrugated cardboard.

Full results are available at http://recyclemaniacs.org.

—Kimberly K. Barlow