91�ֿ�

91�ֿ� entered the RecycleMania Tournament with high hopes last year, but instead received a reality check. This year, 91�ֿ� is determined to recycle its way to a win. RecycleMania is an eight-week recycling and benchmarking competition between colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and Canada. The recycling program seeks to promote waste reduction activities around campus and increase recycling. This year, the competition runs from Feb. 5 to March 31. In 2010, 91�ֿ�’s first year, only the residence halls participated. Because of that, 91�ֿ� was not eligible for the competition division, but was only eligible for the benchmark division. “When we did the benchmark division two years ago, our numbers were fantastic because students in the residence halls were just gang busters on recycling,” says Melanie Knowles, manager of sustainability. “Last year, we decided to do the entire campus, which made us eligible for the competition, but our numbers took a big hit.” Knowles thinks the reason the numbers declined is because when students live in a residence hall, they can recycle everything used in daily life. Faculty and students who live off campus have a very limited type of recyclable materials because they don’t live in the building. Portage County Recycling and Republic Service will report the weights of 91�ֿ�’s mixed, single stream recycling (all recyclables go into one bin) and trash weekly. Republic Service will report the weight of corrugated cardboard, too. As part of the competition, each residence hall will track comingled recyclables for eight weeks, and the winning residence hall receives a $200 award to its hall council. The recyclables will be measured in pounds per person. The recycling collections of every building on campus will be tracked and counted toward the per capita recycling number. 91�ֿ� will be ranked among 630 colleges and universities around the nation based upon  the campus total or per capita number. Last year, 91�ֿ� took 202nd place. “We’d really just like to see an improvement over last year,” says Knowles. “It’s not only beneficial environmentally, but financially, too.” Another element of this year’s competition is that 91�ֿ� will compete against its rival, the University of Akron. After the first week, 91�ֿ� is recycling .99 pounds per person, with a rank of 135 in the Per Capita Classic. The University of Akron is recycling .87 pounds per person, with a rank of 144.