OSU prepares to out-recycle Ducks

As of Monday, RecycleMania is in full swing. In the next 10 weeks, more than 600 universities around North America will compete to see who can come up with the largest amount of recyclables per capita.

Oregon State University has created an additional competition by starting a Civil War with University of Oregon.

OSU has participated in RecycleMania since 2005 and in the Civil War competition since 2010. OSU has beaten UO each year since 2010. Last year the results were 17.1 pounds per person to 14.9 pounds per person.

"In addition to doing all the recording, the other big part of RecycleMania is having lots of activities, marketing and things that are meant to both educate people, how to recycle and how to reduce waste and also to encourage them to do it year-round," said Andrea Norris, the outreach coordinator for Campus Recycling.

"So the idea is you're kind of doing it under the umbrella of this competition that's helping motivate people to go above and beyond, but we're hopefully giving them the tools and the know-how to continue those habits," Norris said.

On Tuesday, the RecycleMania kick-off event was held in front of the Memorial Union staircase. They displayed a Styrofoam igloo created the week before and took students' pictures with their sign. The photos can be seen on the Facebook page, and students are welcome to tag themselves if they had their picture taken.

Throughout this week, another feature event is the "Guess the Weight Contest," in which a large bin of recycling is outside near the sky bridge on Campus Way and students can guess the weight and enter to win prizes.

Many more events are scheduled throughout the term.

Lindsey Lindsey Almarode, a junior in environmental science and the assistant outreach coordinator, thinks that RecycleMania is important for students to participate in.

"Students are a part of the community, and it's our duty as citizens to recycle because what we do to the planet affects future generations," Almarode said. "It's a call to duty, it's something that's fun and it reduces waste."

This year's results for the Civil War are updated daily, so live results can be found online at any point throughout the term.

Gwen Shaw, staff reporter

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