May 1, 2015
Ripon College wastes less second year in RecycleMania
With the leadership of Kelli Walsh '16, our campus successfully competed in RecycleMania again this year. Our campus moved up 18 spots, to rank 42nd nationally for pounds of recycled materials per students. This year we generated 22 lbs/FTE, compared to last year's 19 lbs/FTE. Well done!
In addition, we again ranked second among Wisconsin campuses, coming in just one spot behind UW-Green Bay. While we were first in the ACM last year, Colorado College out-competed us this year; they earned the nation's 39th spot.
Two targeted campaigns made this year's program such a success. During all of February and into March students were "Caught Green Handed". Kelli recruited volunteers across campus to notice positive behavior and reward it with a green ticket. These tickets were filled in by the recipient and later drawn at random to receive a variety of prizes.
The second campaign was new to campus this year. With financial assistance from a Twenty for '15 grant from the Office of the President, an electronics recycling event was held on the afternoon of March 24. During that event, 1465 pounds of electronics were dropped off. These included 286 large items in addition to bulk items including cords, ink cartridges, etc. Cell phones, laptops, printers, and speakers were the most commonly disposed of items.
Credit for our campus' successful participation in this nationwide competition goes to the entire community for your participation. Thank you!
In addition, individuals and offices listed below for their donation of time, materials, and prizes:
Academic offices where electronics were dropped off
John Dalziel and his crew of volunteers
Office of the Presidents
Physical Plant and Housekeeping staff
Ripon Athletics
Ripon College Bookstore
Student Activities Office
Seneca Foods
Sodexo Dining
WM (for weekly data collection)
Ripon College participates in RecycleMania for a second year
After last year's successful participation in RecycleMania, the College is again participating in this nationwide competition to reduce waste and maximize recycling. Over the eight-week period of the competition, the campus community will have the opportunity to participate in events geared at increasing awareness about recycling.
During the last week of the competition, on March 24, the campus will also hold its first e-cycle campaign. Sustainability intern Kelli Walsh '16, with the help of a 20 for '15 grant from the Office of the President, will be collecting electronics in the lobby of Pickard Commons 12:30-2:30.
The list of accepted items includes:
- Laptops/Netbooks/Tablets
- Servers & Backups (Tapes, Drives)
- Battery Backup Appliances (UPS)
- Printers/Scanners/Fax Machines
- Ink and Toner (in bags or boxes)
- Power tools
- Cell phones and chargers
- Cameras and chargers
- Cables & Cords of all types
- Pagers/Radios/Scanners
- Remote controls
- MP3 players
- iPods
- Gaming systems, accessories & games
- Cable and satellite equipment
- Flat screen monitors and TV's under 32" ($10-$20 charge for monitors & TV's with GLASS screens)
Ripon College ranks #1 in ACM and #2 in Wisconsin, and top 1/3 nationally!
Due to the big effort put forth by the Spring Environmental Studies 120 students, EGOR, and Eco-REPS, Ripon College pulled off a second place ranking in the state for pounds of recycled material per student, or 19.189 lbs/student.
During the competition, 79,050 pounds of recycled material were produced. We even had to increase our recycling pick-up from two to three times per week.
Activities conducted during the 8 week challenge included:
- Creating posters of materials which can be recycled and using them for presentations to residence halls, classes, athletic teams, and students groups.
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| Knowing what's recyclable on campus is KEY! |
- Pledge Drive where member of campus committed to waste reduction: over 50 pledges were gathered
- Starbucks Punchcard: anyone bringing their own mug to Starbucks earned a punch, after 10 punches a small or medium drink was FREE.
- Award of $250 grant to use for promotinng RecycleMania on campus. The grant was written by a student.
- Environmental Studies students gave out prizes to students caught "green-handed". Prizes included frisbees, pens, and "I recycled" buttons.
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Caught Green-Handed
Scott Hall had 186 residents, 142 bags with 263.5 pounds of waste, or 1.41 lbs/resident
Johnson Hall had 162 residents, 138 bags with 418.75 pounds of waste, or 2.58 lbs/resident
Evans Hall did the best job, with <1% of their solid waste containing recyclable material. The Pub, Farr Hall, Todd Wehr, and West Hall, had >20% of the solid waste that should have been recycled.
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February 2, 2014
Starting today and going for 8 weeks (March 29) our campus will be participating in the national, inter-campus recycling competition, RecycleMania.
Each week, I will be posting the number of pounds of solid waste and recycling we haul off campus.
Pre-season baseline:
Solid waste: 17,259 pounds per week
Single-stream recycling: 4,448 pounds per week
Throughout this competition we will strive to lower the value of solid waste, increase recyclables, and overall have less waste (both solid and recyclable) leaving campus.
Here's what you can do:
- KNOW what can be recycled! Paper, plastic (#1-#7), glass, aluminum, milk cartons can all be placed in single-stream recycling.
- RECYCLE everything that is recyclable. Sound simple? It is! Dump out any food that may be in a container, then recycle.
- TEACH others what to recycle.
More information about waste reduction can be found on this blog under the "waste minimization" tab.
This link has the conversion factors we will use to calculate our waste.
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