The Utah State University
Sustainability Council is hosting Recyclemania on campus through March 29 in
hopes of encouraging students to increase their recycling efforts throughout
the year.
“Recyclemania is a competition
for university recycling programs to promote waste reduction through activities
on campus,” said Alexi Lamm, the sustainability coordinator at USU. “This is
our fourth year competing in it.”
Colleges across the United
States and Canada report the amount of recycling and trash collected each week
for a two-month period and are then ranked in multiple categories. In 2013, 523
colleges recycled over 90 million pounds of waste.
Utah State is adding extra
incentives to participate this year by giving away weekly prizes to students
who post pictures of themselves recycling on Instagram using #USUdontbetrashy.
“We have seen a 27 percent
increase of recycling during the contest,” Lamm said. “We are hopeful this year
for 33 percent. Not much was being done within the council when I first got
here, but we quickly gained momentum and finally gave ourselves a name on
campus.”
Utah State hired Lamm in
October 2012. Since her arrival, the club and council have each doubled their
membership.
“The Students for Sustainability
Club members are all students, whereas the council is the big picture with
faculty and staff members,” said Amber O’Quinn, a sophomore intern on the
council. “We’ve become more student-focused, and have been pushing for more
student involvement.”
Nikki VanLith, Janessa
Knowles, Claire Hubbard, LeAnn Fox, Alex Taylor and Logan Jones contributed to
this report.
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