University Times

If wasting less or being more organized in 2010 are among your New Year’s resolutions, some motivation is on its way.

Faculty and staff on the Pittsburgh campus are being asked to join students for the 2010 RecycleMania competition.

The 10-week competition, sponsored by the College and University Recycling Council, includes prizes for recycling the most per capita, collecting the largest amount of total recyclables, generating the least amount of trash per capita and having the highest recycling rate. Winners get bragging rights and an award made from recycled glass. This year’s challenge starts Jan. 17 and ends March 27.

The University’s participation aims to increase awareness and get people in the habit of recycling more, said Laura Zullo, Facilities Management’s senior manager of capital and special projects.

The Pittsburgh campus is moving up to the competition category in the 2010 challenge and expanding its effort to include faculty, staff and students after competing for the first time in the noncompetitive benchmark division (in which recycling collections are measured but not reported in competition rankings) in 2009 as a way to promote recycling in the residence halls. Pitt surpassed its goal of 15 pounds of recyclables per student by collecting 24 pounds per student over the 10-week period.

“The benchmarking category trial last year went very well, so we thought we’d open it up and compete this year,” said Zullo. Pitt’s 2010 goal is 15 pounds per person. The national per-capita average in the competition division last year was 13.4 pounds, she said.

Organizers include Facilities Management, Housing, Food Service, Residence Life and Property Management. The student group Free the Planet also will promote the competition, Zullo said.

To conserve paper, employees won’t receive mailings about the effort, but extra recycling containers will be placed across campus during the competition and banners (some of which are being reused from last year) and video screen announcements will appear in the William Pitt Union and Market Central, Zullo said.

In addition to asking the University community to recycle more, organizers are directing a pitch to employees to boost the collections by clearing out their office spaces. Facilities Management is targeting the March 7-14 spring break for a special effort. Zullo said that week was chosen because the absence of students affords a bit of extra time both for faculty members and for maintenance staff. Extra recycling containers will be available and additional recycling pickups scheduled during that week, she said.

Zullo said Pitt’s employees do a good job with paper recycling, but she would like to see faculty and staff boost their aluminum, glass and plastic recycling. “We think we can do better there,” she said, noting that plastics recycling recently expanded to include containers marked with numbers 1-5. Previously only numbers 1-3 were accepted.

Facilities Management statistics show that during fiscal year 2009, Pitt diverted about 42 percent of its waste stream from landfills, recycling 41 tons of aluminum, glass and plastic; 503 tons of paper, and 601 tons of corrugated cardboard.

Zullo said the competition would require some extra reporting by Pitt’s waste and recycling haulers. In addition to tracking recyclables, organizers also will be tallying the amount of trash generated by the University. “The competition’s not necessarily just about recycling, but also reducing waste,” Zullo said.

At the end of the 10 weeks, some of the extra recycling containers will disappear, although some of the most heavily used ones may become permanent, she said. If employees know of an area that could use a recycling container, they can be requested at any time by emailing recycle@fm.pitt.edu.

Since its inception in 2001, the RecycleMania competition has grown to 510 campuses in 2009. Neighboring Carnegie Mellon and Chatham are among the more than 500 colleges and universities expected to participate in the 2010 RecycleMania challenge.

Competition is expected to be tough. Last year, participants recycled 69.4 million pounds during the 10-week challenge. The top school, California State University, recycled more than 78 percent of its overall waste. McNeese State University topped the per-capita competition by collecting more than 76 pounds of recyclables per person.

As newcomers, “I have no illusion we’re going to win, but we will be in the running,” Zullo said.

For more details on the challenge or to track Pitt’s weekly progress, visit www.recyclemaniacs.org. Updates are posted on Fridays and winners are expected to be announced in April.

—Kimberly K. Barlow