Recyclemania Hits Moravian
Moravian College has never been known for its trash talk, but that's about to change. The College is a first-time participant in Recyclemania—a competition to promote waste reduction on college campuses in the U.S. and other countries.
More than 150 on the Moravian campus, including President Christopher Thomforde, have pledged to increase their recycling efforts during the 10-week competition (January 17-March 27) and beyond. (Pledges are still being accepted; contact Jaclyn Held '12, president of the student-based Environmental Coalition.) The pledges' green hand prints already cover three banners on display in the HUB.
"Our goal this year is to increase awareness about recycling," said Held. "We're building a foundation for future years when we will be able to compete with other schools." School size doesn't matter in this competition, she points out: "Connecticut College has only 1,900 students but placed twenty-seventh of more than 500 colleges last year because they boosted the amount recycled by 42% over the previous year."
For 2010, Moravian (registered in the Benchmark Division) seeks to increase its total recycling weight per month over the same month in 2009. In January 2009 each person on campus recycled 0.18 lbs. of paper and 1.12 lbs. of bottles and cans, on average. (Those numbers are based on gross weights supplied by Moravian's recycler, divided by the total number of students, faculty, administration, and staff members on campus.) The 2010 weights will be reported to Recyclemania and posted on their web site.
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| EnviroCo members stormed dorms to collect recyclables for Recyclemania 2010 and boost awareness about recycling. |
Environmental Coalition in the Spotlight
EnviroCo plans weekly events to boost awareness and participation for the duration of the competition, which ends March 27. For the February 8 Dorm Storm, volunteers swept through residence halls armed with trash bags to collect recyclables. Other possible events include a Trash Toss competition and Greyhound recycling nights at athletic games.
"The students in the Environmental Coalition are inspiring and a pleasure to work with!" said Shari Dunham, assistant professor of chemistry and EnviroCo advisor. "With the support of the campus Sustainability Committee, this student group has done a significant amount of work to prepare us to participate in Recyclemania. ... I am encouraged by the enthusiastic start to Recyclemania and look forward to seeing it springboard future sustainability activities and programs on campus."
Three easy ways to help Moravian College meet its 2010 Recyclemania goals:
- Administrators and staff: recycle ALL office paper (correspondence, mail, magazines, newspapers; click here for complete list)
- Students: use residence hall recycling bins to recycle all glass, aluminum, and plastics
- Recycle batteries in the HUB
Other local colleges participating in Recyclemania 2010 include Cedar Crest College, East Stroudsburg University, Del Val College, and Bucks County Community College (all in the Competing Division); like Moravian, Lehigh University has registered to participate in the Benchmark Division. More than 600 schools nationally and internationally are participating in Recyclemania 2010. The annual event began in 2001. More than 600 schools have registered for the 2010 competition to date.