Campus Connection

  By UW-L student Breanna Levine The RecycleMania competition is back for a fifth year at UW-La Crosse. RecycleMania, a national competition between colleges and universities to reduce waste and recycle more, runs through Friday, April 11.  RecycleMania team members calculate the amount of waste produced by the university each week and see how much of that is recyclable material. They enter it into the website, and whichever school can recycle the highest percentage of waste will win the competition. At UW-L, team members such as student Michael Vogt will be on the lookout for students recycling. Students “caught green handed,” or caught recycling, may be eligible to win a prize. During RecycleMania 2012, UW-L recycled 27.85 percent of its waste. In the first two weeks of this year’s competition, the university has raised that number to about 28 percent. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Waste Reduction Model, this is equal to 14 cars being taken off the road or the energy consumption of six households. “UW-L’s goal in this competition is simply to continue to improve our sustainability efforts like we have year after year,” says Vogt. “Everyone knows how to recycle and that we should, but there is always room for improvement.” UW-L has continued to improve its recycling efforts every year, making it one of the most earth-friendly UW System schools. However, there is still a lot of work to be done. “People ask me, ‘why sustainability?’” Vogt says. “I always say it’s because being sustainable is really just being a good person. It entails caring for the health, education and happiest of others, the future and the world.” To learn more about UW-L’s recycling and sustainability efforts, visit www.uwlax.edu/fpm/recycling/index.htm or contact UW-L Building and Grounds Supervisor Kim Tiber at 608.785.8581. To learn more and see how UW-L ranks against other participating schools, visit recyclemaniacs.org.