UMW joined more than 450 colleges and universities across the U.S. and Canada for RecycleMania 2014. The annual eight-week competition encourages students to reduce waste and keep recyclables out of landfills. In its 14th year, RecycleMania runs in February and March – right alongside the NCAA basketball tournament.
UMW is in the “per capita classic” category, in which schools compete to see which can collect the largest weight of recyclables on a per-person basis. At UMW Magazine press time, Mary Washington had led Virginia each week, reporting 27 pounds of waste recycled per person in week four and nearly 140,000 pounds overall. Last year UMW took first place in Virginia and 12th overall, processing more than 200,000 pounds − 37.544 per person − of recyclables. Overall, last year’s Recyclemania recovered 91 million pounds of recyclables and prevented the release of more than 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
RecycleManiacs – volunteers – visit residence halls to encourage recycling and haul away reusables. Faculty, staff, students, and community members get the opportunity to destroy confidential documents free during the March Shred. And this year students turned plastic 2-liter bottles into a UMW community-garden greenhouse.
School rankings are updated weekly on recyclemaniacs.org.