Ecologue

We want to know what YOU want to see happen for RecycleMania 2012 (Jan 22 – March 31)!

Background

RecycleMania is a 10-week competition for U.S. college and university recycling programs to see who can recycle the most! OSU competes both nationally, as well as locally in the RecycleMania Civil War, created by OSU and the UO in 2010 (which OSU has won two years running). Our trophy is pictured at right.

Campus Recycling partners with other organizations on campus to put on at least one activity per week – activities meant to educate and excite OSU about recycling so we can boost our numbers both during the competition and year-round!

Possible Activities

What would you like to see happen? Below is a list of ideas from our social media followers, volunteers and staff. Leave a comment below with your opinion on these ideas and add your own!

Events & Activities

• Build a structure from recyclables and display it in the MU Quad or somewhere else with a lot of foot traffic
• Recycled art competition or show
• Special recycling collection event(s) for hard-to-recycle items like Styrofoam, e-waste, etc. Use them to promote that these services are available year-round to OSU depts.
• Compost collection days in res halls or dining centers
• Coffee cup swap-out – find people on campus using disposable cups and offer them a reusable mug to switch to on the spot.
• Dumpster audits – learn what is in our trash and do it in a visible area to draw attention
• Recycled craft party(ies)
• Compost workshop(s) for different living situations (outdoor, indoor apartment, curbside)
• Offer recycling audits to departments, provide them with tips, and audit them again at the end of the competition to see how they’ve improved
• “Recyclympics” challenge course (see video from University of Tennessee)
• Special OSUsed Store sale(s)

Competitions

• Res hall or Greek competition where students bring recycling to one central spot; material is weighed and rankings displayed online, and the top group wins a prize
• Greek competition and fundraiser – each house will compete for the greatest number of deposit containers contributed, and the redeemed value could be donated to a charity of their choice.
• Res hall competition – measure recycling rate, lbs of recycling per person, or amount of recycling found in their trash, and the top hall wins a prize. Maybe audit at the start and end and award the hall with the greatest improvement.

General Visibility

• Place palatalized bales of recyclables around campus and have people guess their weight by texting in their answer. The people who get the closest will win prizes.
• If data can be obtained from individual trash dumpsters, info could be uploaded and displayed on a Google map to show the most trash is generated on campus.
• Highly visible OSU vs. UO scoreboard(s) that are updated weekly
• Have a weekly trivia contest in the Barometer or elsewhere (MU TVs?); people could email/text/call in answers
• Design RecycleMania e-cards people could send to friends, maybe for Valentine’s Day
• If media ads are purchased, include tips/how-to’s along with events

Do you want to fight for one of these ideas or contribute your own? Please comment below!