By Leah Veldhuisen ’19
With sustainability as one of the college’s strategic priorities, CC is always looking for ways to reduce environmental impact. Each year the college is involved in a competition with other universities to do just that.
The eight-week competition, called Recyclemania, incorporates more than 400 colleges and universities nationwide and keeps tabs on who recycles, composts, and throws away the most.
The program has existed since 2001 and began as a competition between Ohio University and Miami University to motivate students to recycle by way of competition. From Monday, Feb. 6 through Saturday, April 1, CC will participate by measuring the daily weight of waste, compost, and recycling and will post results in Worner Campus Center.
Zoe Holland ’17 works as the zero-waste intern in the Office of Sustainability and is spearheading CC’s participation in Recyclemania for 2017. Holland says she’s excited for Recyclemania because it’s “an awesome opportunity to get students aware of waste reduction initiatives on campus,” and although many CC students are “environmentally conscious, it doesn’t always manifest in our daily habits.”
She says she hopes the competition will be an incentive to remember small, daily tasks, such as using reusable mugs and sorting waste before throwing it out. Holland says the Office of Sustainability hopes to improve upon CC’s competition standings from last year, but also to promote sustainable habits beyond the completion of the competition.
Participating in the competition is easy for students, as they can “simply be conscious of what they throw away and where they do so.” Holland also emphasizes the importance of “paying attention to signage, reading packaging for recycling information, and trying to minimize use of disposable items like coffee cups, to-go ware and other single-use products.” Eco-RAs across campus are also a great source of information for waste management in on-campus housing, Holland says. Supported by the Sustainability Office, the Eco-RA program promotes peer-to-peer education to foster sustainable living practices and all residential areas, including large residence halls, apartments, smaller campus houses and off-campus areas are served by one or more student Eco-RA.
Throughout the competition, the Office of Sustainability will host recycling-themed events. On Thursday, Feb.23, the campus community can participate in a crafting night that will repurpose old books from Tutt Library into storage bins. As a finale to the competition, there will be an art show Thursday, March 30, with student pieces made of recyclable materials. Both events will take place in Perkins Lounge in Worner Campus Center. Anyone interested in getting involved in the show or other sustainability initiatives should contact Holland at zoe.holland@coloradocollege.edu.
