A national championship is still within OU’s reach, but the Sooners are still nearly 150 tons shy.
OU is competing in RecycleMania, a 10-week competition between 500 U.S. colleges and universities to measure campus recycling and waste reduction, for the second year, according to an OU press release.
“RecycleMania helps campus recycling programs rally student, faculty and staff participation in recycling and waste-prevention programs while offering bragging rights and special awards made out of recycled materials to the winning schools,” Amanda Toohey, Physical Plant spokeswoman, said in the release.
Toohey said the university hopes to recycle 18 pounds per person, 200 tons total, during the 2010 competition, which ends March 27. In 2009, OU recycled 14.25 pounds per person in its first year in the competition. OU is currently at more than 50 tons, Toohey said, which is close to 4 pounds per person.
Chris Applegate, president of the environmental campus group OUr Earth, said he thought OU could reach its goal because the campus is getting more recycle bins. Approximately 2,000 Crimson and Green commitments last semester raised $2,000 for OU to buy new recycling bins, Applegate said.
“It’s just proving that OU is still learning to work in a sustainable way and providing students more access to recycling and making it easier for them to recycle,” Applegate said.
Katharine Williams, professional writing sophomore, said recycling on campus is a necessity and it is easy because of all the different facilities on campus for recycling. She said she keeps two separate trash cans in her room to make the recycling process more convenient.
“Even if you’re not a big environmentalist it’s good to not be wasteful in general as a human being,” Williams said. “I don’t see why people have something against [recycling] if it’s easy and good for everybody.”
Philip Barnett, University College freshman, said he wished OU had more recycling options for glass and cardboard.
Barnett said he worked with the Cate Resident Student Association to make a video for RecycleMania’s video competition. The winning video receives $1,500 and serves as the advertisement for the university’s recycling program, Barnett said.
RecycleMania began with three schools in 2001, Toohey said. This year’s competition has the largest number of schools with a 25 percent growth from 2009.
The competition is based on which university or college recycles the greatest percentage of its solid waste. It includes the amount recycled per capita and waste minimization per capita.
The results from each week are posted online at for all universities to see.
“Recycling just gives you a very good boost of confidence that you’re doing something good for the environment,” Barnett said.
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sooner12 2 years, 3 months ago
I'm pretty sure the photo caption is incorrect. Either "Jonathan" has become a woman's name overnight, or I've been watching curling in a completely wrong way.