The University is used to having a top-10 ranking — from U.S. News & World Report to the U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup and any other number of barometers. Now, WUSTL has another top-10 finish on its already impressive list: In 2006, the University ranked No. 9 of 62 schools in a national recycling program.
Starting Jan. 28, there’s a chance to raise that ranking even higher in 2007.
The top-10 finish came in the paper-recycling category as part of the annual Environmental Protection Agency-sponsored RecycleMania program. The National Recycling Council also is a program sponsor.
“This ranking comes after we consistently ranked at the bottom of this category for several years running,” said Bruce Backus, assistant vice chancellor for environmental health & safety. “The primary reason for the improved ranking is due to better tracking of recycled materials but is also due to improved involvement by students, the Committee on Environmental Quality, Facilities Planning & Management, Residential Life, WUSM Facilities Management Department and Environmental Health & Safety.”
RecycleMania is a friendly competition among college and university recycling programs in the United States that provides the campus community with a fun, proactive activity in waste reduction. For a 10-week period, campuses compete in different contests to see which institution has the highest recycling rate and which can collect the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables and the least amount of trash per capita.
The 2007 contest starts Jan. 28 and runs through April 7, with the main goal of increasing student awareness of campus recycling and waste minimization. The University’s Committee on Environmental Quality monitors and submits WUSTL’s information to the conference sponsors; participating schools are required to report measurements in pounds on a weekly basis.
“In the spirit of the RecycleMania competition, I would like to issue a friendly challenge to everyone in the University community to increase the amount of material that they recycle,” Backus said. “We analyzed what people put into trash containers in select University locations that have access to the University’s recycling program, and we found that people are still putting a lot of recyclable materials into the trash.”
Backus continued: “With our goal to be an environmental leader, I would like to challenge everyone to improve Washington University’s rankings so that we consistently are in the top 10 percent, among the top five to six schools, in all recycling and waste-reduction categories. If even a small portion of the recyclable material is diverted from trash to recycle containers, we can easily achieve this goal.”
RecycleMania offers winners various recognition, including trophies, awards and certificates.
For more information on RecycleMania and complete contest results, visit recyclemaniacs.org. For more information about recycling on campus, visit ceq.wustl.edu.