Campus Update
(February 1, 2007)
UAlbany Joins Nationwide Recycling Competition
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Last fall, Indian Quad won a campus-wide recycling contest. Now it's time to go national with Recyclemania. |
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Whether you are a faculty member, staffer, or a student, you can help the University at Albany win the nationwide RecycleMania competition. From now through April 7, UAlbany is competing against the University of Vermont, Harvard, Stony Brook, Binghamton and more than 150 other universities and colleges across the nation to see who can tip the scales in recycling tonnage.
"Everyone is getting involved," said Michelle McConville, director of Administrative Services. Students have already volunteered to paint the recycling boxes in bright colors, to hand out information at basketball games, and to raise awareness across campus about watching what we waste. The judging will be on the basis of the amount UAlbany recycles per person, so every single person on campus counts.
Every week, a new feature of the competition will be rolled out. And at the end of every week, Tim Reilly, supervisor of the Grounds Department, will weigh the "rolloff," the amount we have recycled as a campus.
Banners and posters will pop up around the campus, and the events will be promoted at basketball games. You can track our progress online on the RecycleMania Web site.
Here is how you can help UAlbany win:
For Students
Separate your recyclables from trash and fill up the bins located on your quad and around the podium. There is a trash room in the quads, with color-coded bins for cans, glass, plastic, and paper.
For paper and cardboard: "If it tears, recycle it." Don't recycle used tissues, napkins, paper towels or anything with food on it. Anything put into a recycle bin that isn't recyclable contaminates the bin and means we have to throw it all out.
For Faculty and Staff
Aside from sorting your office trash into paper and trash, there is more you can do. Does your office have old electronic equipment? Contact Equipment Management at (518) 437-4570 and let them know. Discarded office electronics equipment goes to the Social Science loading dock and is shrink wrapped on pallets for disposal. Do you have old batteries of any kind? Take them to the Battery Bin in the Campus Center Lobby. Look for the Recycling Center that is being set up.
The idea to join Recyclemania came from the Solid and Hazardous Waste Committee of the Task Force on Environmental Sustainability. McConville co-chairs the committee with Vincent Franconere, director of Environmental Health and Safety. Other members of the committee include Reilly; Doug Cornwall of Custodial Services; Lisa Donahue, assistant director of Environmental Health and Safety; and Robert Nakamura, professor of political science and public administration.
