VCU collects 72,000 pounds of recyclables to date for RecycleMania

By Chris Landrum
VCU Communications and Public Relations

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Environmental Conservation has collected more than 72,000 pounds of recyclable material in the first two weeks of RecycleMania competition. This collection comes from the 96 bins located on both campuses.

This is the second year VCU has participated in RecycleMania.

“We are way ahead of last year,” said Steven Heintz, VCU’s recycling coordinator. “This year VCU is fully participating in RecycleMania and will be including all the recyclable materials collected each week from the whole campus.”

VCU collected approximately 81,000 pounds of recyclables for the entirety of the program last year, placing VCU in the top 100 participants for the partial campus class, which includes residence halls only. The first two weeks of the 10-week competition are considered trial weeks.

Participants sign up through the RecycleMania Web site and record their own results. The program encourages campuses to increase conservation and recycling efforts and is aimed at helping educate college students about the benefits and ease of recycling.

The Department of Environmental Conservation was established at VCU in 2008 and manages the recycling program for VCU, as well as the promotion and tracking of the RecycleMania competition for VCU.

RecycleMania, a program of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Recycling Coalition, is a voluntary competition to increase recycling efforts and reduce waste. The program brings more than 500 schools together from around the world to compete in waste-reduction efforts. The 2009 competition ends March 28.

For more information, visit www.recyclemania.org.