Sustainability@UIC

UIC Kicks Off its 2014 RecycleMania Collegiate Recycling Competition

2014-02-10T12:45:00.001-06:00

UIC Kicks Off its 2014 RecycleMania Collegiate Recycling Competition

14^thAnnual Competition Focuses on Student Engagement

Chicago, IL (Feb. 10, 2014) – The University of Illinois at Chicago has successfully kicked off its participation in the 2014 RecycleMania tournament, the national competition in which college campuses compete over eight weeks to see which can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste.

In addition to UIC, 461 schools, with more than 5.3 million students and 1.2 million faculty and staff are participating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. Schools compete in 11 categories to see which recycles the most on a per capita basis; which produces the least amount of waste; and which recycles the largest percentage of their overall waste stream. The competition runs through March 30.

UIC will compete in the formal competition, which ranks schools based on standardized weight measurements. Schools compete in 11 categories to see which can recycle the most paper, cardboard, cans and bottles, and food waste on a per capita basis; which can produce the least amount of waste; and which recycles the largest percentage of their overall waste stream. Additional categories recognize successful recycling at home basketball games and call attention to the recyclability of film plastic and scrap electronics.

Updated rankings published online each Friday allow schools to track their progress and rally to improve their standings against rival colleges.

UIC recycles many materials- from paper to plastic to electronics to laboratory materials and almost everything in between! You can participate in many ways. 1) Take the recycling pledge at http://americarecyclesday.org/pledge2) place all paper, cardboard, glass, metal, and plastic in to the proper recycle bins. 3) Clean out your office by recycling all your old paper files. Request a “green tote” to be delivered to your door. 4) Send old electronics, batteries and computers to electronics recycling. 5) Recognize people around you that are going above and beyond to recycle! Got a co-worker or classmate that makes everyone recycle properly or know a UIC Building Service Worker busting their tail to get recycling done in your building? Let us know at recycling@uic.edu.

UIC will post updates about the Recyclemania competition to http://sustainability.uic.edu/recyclemania. You can also check to see how your specific building is doing!

“Every year UIC participates and we are among the best! In the category for total weight of recyclables, UIC placed sixth in 2013.” said Joe Iosbaker, UIC Recycling Coordinator. “This year, we hope to break into the top 5”.

“RecycleMania is exciting because it builds on traditional college rivalries by adding recycling to the list of things that schools can brag about when it comes to their archrivals," said Stacy Wheeler, president of RecycleMania, Inc. "The competition aspect of the event makes it fun and helps to encourage everyone on the entire campus to make recycling a part of their daily routines."

In 2013, 91 million pounds of recyclables and organic materials were recovered, which prevented the release of greenhouse gases comparable to the carbon sequestered by 99,535 acres of U.S. forests in one year.

Top schools in the 2013 competition included University of Missouri Kansas City in the Grand Champion category; California State University San Marcos, in the Per Capita Classic; and Valencia College, which won the Waste Minimization category for the second straight year.

“Encouraging waste reduction and recycling among college students is crucial to building and sustaining vibrant communities, both on campuses and beyond,” said Keep America Beautiful’s Brenda Pulley, senior vice president, recycling. “Supporting Recyclemania is a key component of KAB’s efforts to improve recycling on college campuses.”

The competition is made possible with the continued sponsorship support of the Alcoa Foundation, the American Forest & Paper Association, The Coca-Cola Company and SCA Tissue.

A complete list of participants can be found at RecycleManiacs.org. For more information about UIC’s RecycleMania program, contact recycling@uic.edu

About RecycleMania
RecycleMania was launched in 2001 as a friendly challenge between Ohio University and Miami University to increase recycling on their campuses. Today, RecycleMania is an independent program of RecycleMania, Inc. The program is made possible with sponsorship support from the Alcoa Foundation, American Forest & Paper Association, The Coca-Cola Company and SCA. Program management is provided by Keep America Beautiful with additional program support from the U.S. EPA’s WasteWise program and the College and University Recycling Coalition (CURC). RecycleMania is proud to partner with UNCF Special Programs, the Campus Conservation Nationals, National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). To learn more about RecycleMania, visit www.recyclemania.org.

About UIC
UIC ranks among the nation’s top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago’s largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state’s major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world.

RecycleMania is back for 2013!

2013-02-04T10:41:00.001-06:00

RecycleMania is the competition that pits hundreds of colleges and universities against each other in a challenge to increase recycling on campus. Tracking material for the official competition begins Sunday, February 3 and lasts through Friday, April 5^th.

In the past two years, UIC has established itself as a serious contender! In 2011, we placed ninth Joe Fabrizio, the driver on the UIC paper recycling truck, said, “Personally I won’t be satisfied until we break the top five!”

It won’t be easy. We’re up against elite state schools like Rutgers University, University of California-Irvine, Michigan State University and University of California-Los Angeles, as well as private schools like Boston College, Duke and Harvard.

However, what UIC lacks in endowments, we make up for in hard work.

Counting on Students

It’s up to the student body (with the help of faculty and staff on campus) to meet this challenge. Not only can we move up the ranks in weight rank, we can also improve our national standing in per capita competitions. To this end, we’re calling for a duel between the different residence halls – East Campus, West Campus and South Campus. Together with Campus Housing, a competition will be held to honor the hall that has the greatest improvement in per capita recycling.

We’ll post the scores weekly on the Office of Sustainability website. Stay tuned!

How are you going to help UIC win Recycemania? Let us know in the comments!

The (Art Competition) Winner Is...

2012-04-09T15:02:00.000-05:00

We are proud to announce that all of the teams participating in the RecycleMania Art Competition on March 30 did an outstanding job. However, there could only be one winner. The winning team included members Erin Curl, Ijeoma-Jessie Nwosu, and Holly Brenza (pictured on the left with their winning tote).

The teams had a total of 2 hours to decorate their totes before judging commenced. The presiding judges were recruited from housing staff, and they declared the winning team.

The Office of Sustainability provided spray paint and found-item materials (including used cd’s, stickers, broken keyboards and more) to be used by competitors to decorate their 90 gallon totes. The competing teams used a variety of materials. Everything from old discarded computer cords to candy wrappers can be seen on the decorated totes (pictured below). Each team showed discernible creativity and original design. The totes they have decorated will not only beautify the UIC campus, they will also provide even more recycling areas, as the totes will be used both decoratively and practically.

The Office of Sustainability would like to thank everyone who competed in the event, as well as everyone who made it possible.

RecycleMania has now come to an end, but we appreciate all the students and staff who made it possible and will post the results in the next two weeks when weigh-ins are complete. Stay tuned for more details on the final results of the national competition.

RecycleMania sprouts in residence halls

2012-02-24T15:26:00.000-06:00

The Office of Sustainability gave a presentation in January to the East Campus Residence Hall staff to inform them about the RecycleMania tournament. After witnessing the presentation, Altaf Khan, a peer mentor in Courtyard, organized his own event to accompany the RecycleMania tournament. His idea was to have his floor in Courtyard decorate cardboard boxes to collect their recycling in. These boxes would be placed in their clusters to create easy access and help encourage people to recycle.

The event took place on February 21^st on the first floor of Courtyard. People who attended decorated their boxes, and were able to watch the presentation that inspired Altaf as it played at the event.

The students seemed to enjoy the event and they are, as of now, looking for a way to weigh the recycling they collect in order to assess their personal contribution. This event was truly inspiring and demonstrates the social awareness and genuine concern that UIC students possess. The Office of Sustainability would like to thank everyone who attended the event, and give a special thanks to Altaf for making it happen.

RecycleMania is still on and we encourage everyone to get involved.

UIC Wins Best University Recycling Prize in Illinois for 2011

2011-10-26T10:00:00.000-05:00

The Illinois Recycling Association(IRA) chose UIC to receive the Grand Champion award for Outstanding College and University Recycling Program for 2010-2011. UIC was acknowledged for demonstrating the greatest achievement in both source reduction and recycling among Illinois colleges and universities competing at RecycleMania. Recyclemania is a national competition of four year colleges and universities. In 2011, 660 schools were involved. UIC placed 9th in the nation in total tonnage of recyclables, with 719,354 pounds of paper, cardboard and bottles and cans captured in the recycling stream in an eight week period.

Michael Mitchell, Executive Director of IRA presented the award at UIC on Thursday, October 6th, at 10:00 am in the offices of Mark Donovan, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services. Receiving the award together with Mr. Donovan was Cynthia Klein-Banai, Associate Chancellor for Sustainability.

Pictured above from left to right: Pablo Acevedo, Associate Director of Facilities Management; Clarence Bridges, Director of Operations and Maintenance; Michael Mitchell; Mark Donovan; and Cynthia Klein-Banai.

RecycleMania 2011 at UIC!

2011-02-04T12:06:00.005-06:00

Starting Monday February 8, over the next 10 weeks universities all over the country will be competing to beat their rival in the biggest challenge we face! Recycling!

Universities serve as small cities within their communities, meaning they produce a significant amount of waste. The biggest in mind- paper, is one of the most recycle-friendly products we use today. School's have the potential to recycle much more than they do and RecycleMania provides a fun way for recycling coordinators, student green teams and faulty to get the campus community involved.

RecycleMania creators knew that the best way to increase participation was not a simple environmental message, but a competition between rival schools to prove who is best at taking on a big challenge. This challenge incorporates more than just recycling. It requires full energy and participation from the UIC community to reduce their waste and recycle as much as they can- even from home for those who commute!

Participating schools are required to measure their output of recycled materials. However, all you have to do to be active in the competition is put as many recyclable material in the recycling bins provided on UIC's campus! Here are the past results since the first RecycleMania in 2002.