New 'office clean-outs' help CMU beat last year's RecycleMania levels; loses to Western


Central Michigan University did not beat Western Michigan University during RecycleMania 2011, but it did surpass the 2010 total.

Six hundred colleges and universities participated in this year’s competition, which started Jan. 23 and ran until April 2.

“We did not beat Western, however we did remain competitive with them,” said Presque Isle graduate Sarah Reisner, who coordinated RecycleMania at CMU.

CMU recycled 117.67 tons, or 235,340 pounds, of material during the 10-week period, which is 4,493 more pounds recycled than last year.

“From my perspective, it’s not about beating Western, it’s about trying to help our university and the environment,” said Heather Curtis, a Flint senior who coordinated the event along with Reisner. “It’s always good to beat Western, but we can beat them at other things."

Reisner said since the campus population is growing, CMU needs to see its recycling rate grow as well.

Organizers hope to have more campus outreach next year and make recycling an important part of everyday campus life, she said.

Reisner also hopes to inform incoming freshmen about recycling on campus, so they can start recycling habits early.

“We hope to make everyone on campus informed about all the recycling options we have available here at CMU," Reisner said.

The new method applied to this year’s RecycleMania was the use of "office clean-outs," Reisner said, where CMU faculty members were provided large containers to use in recycling.

“It gave staff members an easy way to get rid of some of their excess materials and for us to increase our recycling efforts during the RecycleMania competition," she said.

Reisner, Curtis and others involved with RecycleMania would then pick up the containers and recycle the materials for the CMU faculty members.

Reisner was pleased with the number of people who decided to join the CMU recycling initiative, especially various groups and organizations across campus. She hopes recycling on campus keeps growing along with enrollment.

“That shows that it’s not just our recycling team here on campus that wants to go green, but a campus-wide initiative with a lot of different people supporting us," Reisner said.

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