Organizers of Recycle Mania have decided to devide up the
competitors into two divisions: the Competiton Division and the
Benchmark Division. CU is participating in the Competition Division.
Within
the Competition Division, Recycle Mania is made up of 4 main
competitions. Beyond these main 4, there are also competitions for
various "Target Materials". Based on the recycling data provided, each
school is entered into the contests by the Recycle Mania officials.
Th
CU Recycling program takes pride in accurately recording weights and
volumes of recycable materials, along with trash, that are collected
from the CU Campus.
Based on the data recorded by CU Recycling
and reported to Recycle Mania, the following are a summary of the
competitions that CU will be participating in this year:
Grand Champion
This
is the "Holy Grail" of Recycle Mania and determines who is the national
winner after 10 weeks of competition. This competition measures both
recycling and trash, and the results are reported in a "Diversion
Rate", or amount of material diverted from the landfill. The Diversion
Rate is calculated by taking the total amount of recycling captured as
a percentage of the total waste (trash + recycling). To win this
esteemed title, a school must not only recycle as much as possible, but
also reduce the amount of trash generated.
Per Capita Classic
This
competition is designed to compare "apples to apples" when comparing
schools of such varying sizes in population. Total recycling
(excluding food service organics) is combined and then divided by the
total number of people on campus. This gives a "Recycling Per Person"
rate.
Waste Minimization
As we are all concerned with the total amount of waste (both trash and recycling) generated in any community, this competition measures the total municipal solid waste (trash+recycling) from a campus community. The total waste is reported as a per capita number, equating to Total Waste Per Person. To be the best Waste Minimizer, or Zero Waste Warrior (as we like to call it), a school must reduce and reuse as much as possible before even thinking of recycling.
Gorilla Prize
To show the total amount of recycling, which is no less than significant, coming from a campus community, the Gorilla Prize measures all recycling (cans, bottles, paper fibers) excluding food service organics. There is not "per capita" rating here, so the larger schools tend to dominate.
Targeted Materials
4 other competitions exist for specific materials, including: paper, corrugated cardboard, cans/bottles, food service organics. The school who recycles the most of a specific material will win the prize for that category.
