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UE Competing in Recycling Challenge

Posted: Thursday, March 7, 2013

The University of Evansville is competing again this year to see which Southwestern Indiana school can do the best in engaging its students to recycle on-campus waste.

UE, the University of Southern Indiana and Ivy Tech Community College are among more than 500 schools participating in the national RecycleMania competition. To complement the tournament, which receives national sponsorship from the Alcoa Foundation, Alcoa Warrick Operations has challenged the schools in a local contest.

Alcoa Warrick Operations will provide a cash prize of $1,500 to whichever school improves the most in the second half of the challenge. They will be vying against one another in the final half of the eight-week challenge, which concludes March 30. The metrics for the contest are based on each school's per capita recycling rates. In addition to the local grant, the winner in the competition will also get a traveling trophy, created by a local artist from crushed aluminum cans.

Last year, the three schools diverted more than 86,000 pounds of material from area landfills, scoring a sustainable win for the entire community. Also, they scored in the top tier of the challenge for per capita recycling rates and for the quantity of collected material.

The on-campus recycling efforts at the schools are being supplemented by recycling bins provided in previous years by Alcoa Warrick Operations and the Alcoa Foundation.

This is the third year for the local challenge between the local colleges, which started in 2011 with a cross-town rivalry between USI and UE. Ivy Tech Community College joined in the friendly competition last year.

"University of Evansville students, faculty, and staff look forward to another friendly RecycleMania competition, and this year's goal of improving in the second half of the challenge is a great motivator," said UE President Thomas A. Kazee. "Regardless of the outcome, however, everyone is a winner. The increased focus on sustainability and recycling benefits the entire Evansville community."

The Alcoa Foundation is a national sponsor of RecycleMania, Inc., which is governed by a steering committee made up of recycling managers from participating universities. Program management for the 2013 RecycleMania Tournament is provided by Keep America Beautiful, the national nonprofit organization.

A complete list of participants and additional information about RecycleMania can be found at http://recyclemaniacs.org.

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