Alyson Schapira, a freshman hearing and speech major, helps shred documents Thursday morning as part of the university’s participation in a RecycleMania challenge.
A shredding truck pulverized papers and sensitive documents yesterday in the name of competition.
On Feb. 2, the university once again began competing in RecycleMania, an eight-week event in which colleges and universities across the country and Canada compete for the best recycling rates and the least amount of waste in their state, their athletic conference and the nation. Although the win doesn’t come with a monetary prize, bragging rights remain an incentive for the 461 participating schools.
The university has taken part in RecycleMania since 2007, and according to Bill Guididas, coordinator for University Recycling and Solid Waste Program, recycling and waste reduction on the campus have been up in recent years. From 2012 to 2013, the amount of waste diverted from landfills increased from 75 to 78 percent and total waste recycled increased from 51 to 55 percent, he said.
Faculty and staff brought departmental papers and old exams and dumped them into the truck, parked between Byrd Stadium and Riggs Alumni Center, which contains a huge shredder and reduces documents to little more than confetti. That paper, and all the other recycling and waste produced across the campus, are included in the competition.
The shredding truck does not see as much student involvement as other RecycleMania events, such as an “e-waste” drive in which students recycle electronics, said Adrienne Small, a Facilities Management recycling specialist and the competition’s coordinator. However, it has yielded about five tons of recyclable material every year since Facilities Management started doing a version of the event in 2010, Small said.
She said the results of the first week of RecycleMania are in, and this university leads the ACC in the Grand Champion category for the highest ratio of recycled material to total waste, as well as in Waste Minimization for the lowest amount of trash per capita.
The university also tops others in the state for the Gorilla Prize, which recognizes the university with the highest gross tonnage of recycled materials.
Andrew Muir, the Office of Sustainability’s communications coordinator, said it’s a great start for a competition that raises awareness of recycling and makes going green a point of campus pride.
Though students often do not have enough sensitive documents of their own to shred, some still helped out by volunteering for the event.
Alyson Schapira, a freshman hearing and speech sciences major, said the event fit with her schedule, but it was also something she had a personal interest in.
“I like helping the environment,” she said. “More students should support a healthy environment and be conscious of it.”
Guididas said he appreciated the campus community’s increased interest in recycling and stressed that students should always be mindful of doing what they can to recycle and reduce waste.
“I’d like to thank everybody on campus for doing their part,” he said. “It’s always a challenge to educate and promote recycling in the campus community.”
RecycleMania is great for campus pride, Muir said, noting that numbers don’t mean everything: Although the university might not top the charts nationally because the participating schools vary in size and number of resources, it’s an opportunity to make progress on the recycling front.
And as the university prepares to leave the ACC this year and head to the Big Ten athletic conference, Muir said RecycleMania also provides an opportunity to play out a long-term rivalry.
“This is one of the last times we can say, ‘Beat Duke,’” he said.
