Results for RecycleMania exercise: We lost hundreds of pounds FAST!
RecycleMania efforts across campus for the weeks of March 20 – 26 and March 27 – April 2 showed that a little extra effort can make a significant difference! In the three weeks before RecycleMania promotion efforts began (Feb. 27 – March 19), on average, our campus-wide waste stream was 46,306 lbs/week, with 31,920 lbs being trash on the way to the landfill and 14,386 lbs of recyclables heading to the recycling facility. For the RecycleMania weeks, our average waste stream totaled 45,913 lbs/week, with 31,005 lbs/week being trash and 14,908 lbs/week being recyclables. On average, UW-Green Bay reduced the waste sent to the landfill by 915 lbs/week and increased our recycling by 522 lbs/week!
Nearly all recycle most of the time… and survey yields suggestions
The recycling survey showed that 94% of the respondents recycled materials at least 75% of the time. Many interesting ideas and suggestions were submitted from the survey — from suggestions on how to increase awareness and recycling participation across campus, to ideas that combined both economic and environmental sense such as buying juice in a large container and filling a reusable bottle to take to class each day. Creative ideas for reuse of items ranged from art projects to reusing a milk carton as a headlight shield for a ’93 Mercury Topaz.
Five winners were randomly selected from survey participants and e-mailed suggestions. The winners are Sarah Kupsky, Wendy Huber, Brooke Wiegman, Billy Lobner and Ashlynn Fleury. Prizes included tickets to University Theatre productions, CheapSeats movies and a T-Rattlers game. Sustainability coordinator Laurie Case extends her appreciation to everyone “who took action by reducing, reusing and recycling!”
