The University of Rochester scored second place nationally in the Waste Diversion category of the 2017 GameDay Recycling Challenge! The GameDay Recycling Challenge is a national collegiate football waste reduction competition administered by the College and University Recycling Coalition (CURC), RecycleMania, Keep America Beautiful, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise program.
Each year, the University participates in the GameDay Recycling Challenge during the Meliora Weekend homecoming football game. “Zero-waste rangers” made up of volunteer staff and students work to ensure as much waste is composted or recycled as possible. Overall the University of Rochester had an astounding waste diversion rate of 91.55% this past fall. This landed the University second place in the waste diversion category out of 70 total competing schools around the country. Over 582 pounds of materials were recycled and 50 pounds of organics were composted at the game.
Congratulations to the University of Akron who took first place in this category, with a 93.57% waste diversion rate! Congratulations also to Clemson University who finished at the top of the Total Recycling category collecting 98,521 pounds of material to be recycled, composted or donated! In total, over 2.06 million pounds of waste were recycled, composted or donated at 181 nationwide GameDay events throughout the season. This collective effort prevented the emission of 2,410 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases, which is equivalent to removing over 500 cars from the road for a year.
Senior Vice President of Recycling of Keep America Beautiful Brenda Pulley congratulated the participating teams and said, “Beyond the waste recovered on game days, the full impact of these efforts comes from the fans who were encouraged to continue reducing, recycling and composting waste throughout the year.”
Full results of the 2017 GameDay Recycling Challenge are available here. For a more in-depth overview of the University of Rochester’s results from the 2017 GameDay Recycling Challenge, take a look at this article.
Written by Mariah Greico, Class of 2018
Well done! I am glad to hear about such initiatives, especially when they are initiated by young people. We, in our company, also strive to contribute to the recycling of unused stuffs and the waste collection.