The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is cleaning up campus during the annual Recylemania event beginning Feb. 5 and ending on April 1. The campus will compete in a nationwide competition to see who can collect the most amount of trash and recycling over the eight-week period.
There will also be events held throughout the competition to help students get involved and become more aware of their trash and recycling habits. Some events include a banner pledge signing in the University Center, plastic bag collection sites across campus, a plastic bag collection challenge at the basketball game Feb. 15 and a film screening of A Plastic Ocean March 13th at 5:30 p.m. in Summers Auditorium.
A waste audit will also be held on campus to see how well the recycle programs are being conducted. A video of the event will be released on the Sustainability Center’s website as well as their social media during Recylemania.
At the end of the eight-week event all of the campus’s waste will be weighed by the sustainability center. The side of campus has recycled the most will win the competition. The data collected from the campus as a whole will also be turned in to the nationwide competition to discern where we rank amongst other universities across the nation.
Recylemania is hosted by the Sustainability Center on campus. The center has a hand in many events on campus, but mainly focuses on academic, involvement, volunteer projects and maintaining the campus gardens.
Wesley Enterline, the sustainability office coordinator is excited for the event to start and knows that being a small campus doesn’t mean that we can’t make a difference.
“If you think about a D-1 school, they do a game day challenge that’s a bigger deal. They get thousands and thousands of people to go to those games. They can really have a big impact at a campus like Madison. For us it’s a little bit smaller, but it’s still a good way for us to promote. Most of the time it’s trying to identify where we can improve just with putting out bins, and offering the amenities to recycle,” Wesley said.
Recylemania hosts many benefits for campus, not just for the environment but also because it brings in a lot of on campus groups in to work together. The sustainability center also works very closely with on campus groups such as Students Allied for a Green Earth (SAGE) and Creative Marketing Unlimited (CMU). The on campus groups are happy to be helping out such a good cause.
“SAGE is very dedicated to educating students on campus, which is why Recyclemania is awesome, because it’s a great opportunity to educate and make a difference,” Mary Huff, co President of SAGE said. The main goals of the event are to get students involved with recycling and learn better waste habits and show support for campus recycling programs and of course having a safe and fun competition.”