{"id":115081,"date":"2018-04-26T10:39:09","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T14:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=115081"},"modified":"2023-01-25T15:33:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T20:33:45","slug":"bates-posts-strong-results-in-national-recycling-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2018\/04\/26\/bates-posts-strong-results-in-national-recycling-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates posts strong results in national recycling competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a national recycling competition among 167 U.S. colleges, Bates earned top-30 rankings for successfully minimizing waste and diverting waste from landfills.<\/span><\/p>\n

RecycleMania<\/span><\/a>, held during February and March, encourages colleges and universities to reduce and reuse their waste. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bates placed 12th out of 169 schools nationally for Food Organics, a measure of how much food waste is donated, composted, or otherwise diverted; and 28th out of 171 schools for Diversion, which measures the total waste diverted away from landfills or incineration. <\/span><\/p>\n

The college\u2019s EcoReps, students who lead sustainability-related projects on campus, spearheaded Bates\u2019 participation in the competition. But they\u2019re not resting on their RecycleMania laurels.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe results show us what areas we need to work on and more of what we need to do in the future,\u201d says Olivia LaMarche \u201920, who is in an EcoRep group focused on waste and recycling. \u201cIt\u2019s a really good benchmark.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

RecycleMania encourages recycling across several categories. Three hundred colleges and universities across the United States and Canada, with a total enrollment of 3.6 million, <\/span>recycled<\/span><\/a> or composted 68.6 million pounds of waste during the Feb. 4\u2013March 31 competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bates and the EcoReps have made concerted efforts in recent years to reduce waste on campus, including installing\u00a0standardized bins<\/a> for sorting waste,\u00a0eliminating paper coffee cups<\/a> in Commons, and hosting “No Waste November<\/a>” events around the ever-popular annual\u00a0Trashion Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Sustainability Manager Tom Twist and several EcoReps show off the college\u2019s color-coded waste receptacles, installed in 2017. (Josh Kuckens\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

Bates\u2019 strong RecycleMania numbers show that the college is doing well in an area that often proves a tough nut to crack: changing people’s behavior.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been putting a lot of thought into waste reduction, such as standardization of bins, and these numbers would suggest that it\u2019s working,\u201d says Sustainability Manager Tom Twist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Using receipts from the local companies that take Bates\u2019 waste to area landfills, recycling centers, or composters, the EcoReps were able to measure how many pounds of waste the campus produces and where the waste goes. <\/span><\/p>\n

But to reduce those numbers as much as possible, the EcoReps had to get other students informed and on board. So they took to Commons in February and March, explaining RecycleMania and asking waste-related trivia questions. Such as:<\/span><\/p>\n