Photo by Leslie Weddell

Colorado College’s location near the foot of Pikes Peak has always been a source of pride. But during the spring semester, CC students and staff built a different kind of mountain on campus.

This one was made of trash.

Colorado College participated in RecycleMania, a nationwide competition among colleges and universities aimed at promoting waste reduction on campuses. CC students and staff constructed “Trash Peak,” a 30-cubic-yard mountain of trash at the base of Earle Flagpole, as a visual reminder of the amount of solid waste that CC generates in a single day.

Colorado College finished 22^nd overall in the RecycleMania competition, placing it in the top 10 percent in the Grand Champion category, which measures cumulative recycling rate. Additionally, CC placed 12^th out of 293 schools in the Per Capita category, which earned CC a spot in the top 5 percent of participating schools. The Per Capita category, the most popular category of the competition, measured the amount of recycled pounds per person. “I knew that the campus community would do well, but I’m still blown away at how well CC did in the first year of participation,” said George Eckhardt, assistant director of facilities services.