UA News

The UA is participating in a nationwide recycling competition that will run for another five weeks.

Five weeks into the nationwide RecycleMania competition, The University of Arizona campus community has recycled 483,444 pounds of material.

With five weeks left in the competition, the UA has already surpassed Residence Life's recycling total from last year, which amounted to less than 70,000 pounds.

RecycleMania involves colleges and universities in a 10-week recycling drive to see who can collect the most recyclables. More than 510 schools registered to participate this year in various categories where the winning schools will take trophies.

While the UA's Residence Life unit, which is responsible for on-campus living, has been involved in the program for eight years, this is the first time the entire University community is participating.

"We are doing great," said Liz Zavodsky, the coordinator of sustainability education in Residence Life.

But Zavodsky is encouraging the campus community to continue recycling, and in greater numbers.

At last count, the UA had recycled 483,444 pounds of material. That includes items like paper, plastic, cardboard and aluminum.

"That is roughly 10 pounds of material per person over the last five weeks," Zavodsky said.

Recycling bins are located around campus and in buildings and, each week, the material will be weighed and the numbers docked with RecycleMania. Aluminum, plastic, cardboard, paper, tin and chipboard, such as cereal boxes, are the items being recycled.

"In Residence Life we have not only encouraged good recycling practices, but we have also challenged our students to be creative and offer programming around sustainability throughout these 10 weeks," she said.

Here's the breakdown: paper, 368,929 pounds; cardboard, 103,880 pounds; plastic, 8,566 pounds; and alumnium, 2,079 pounds.

Zavodsky said the greatest aspect of recycling has been the amount of plastic that has been diverted from landfills.

"This is huge, and it's one of the most important topics we are discussing with our students," she said.

"We are in a place that not only has running water, but has clean water that we can drink right from the faucet. We are trying to reduce the number of single serving bottles of water that are consumed and encourage the use of a reusable water bottle," Zavodsky added. "I am happy that we are at least seeing these be recycled since water bottles can turn into so many other things, like clothes and carpet."