In February 2001, members of Ohio University and Miami University started a contest to see who could recycle the most as a way to increase recycling in the residence and dining halls. This eight-week competition was dubbed “RecycleMania.”

Ten years later, the contest membership has grown from two universities to 630 colleges and universities from the United States to the United Kingdom and Qatar. This year, the contest started on Feb. 6 and will end on Apr. 2 — eight short weeks to determine who will step up their game to become the new RecycleMania champion.

What is the prize, you might wonder? The answer is bragging rights and good, old-fashioned pride in your school’s commitment to the environment.

“This contest not only is a good-natured competition, but also gives us incredible insight into how our progress has been and gives us a chance to compare (our progress) to the years before, as well as other schools,” said Environmental Sustainability Coordinator Jim Dees.

Guilford has been a part of RecycleMania since 2008. This year, Guilford is entered in the Gorilla Classic, the Per Capita Classic and the Waste Minimization categories, according to Dees.

Guilford’s continued participation in RecyleMania is especially fitting, as the theme for the 2010-2011 academic year is sustainability. The college has already shown its commitment to the environment by installing 200 solar panels this summer, installing two Earth Tubs for composting and making Archdale Hall LEED silver certified.

“We are already seeing benefits,” said Dees. “The second year we participated in RecycleMania, we added the first Earth Tub. This year, we added the second Earth Tub, and we’re composting 100 percent of the food out of the cafeteria. When we’re not composting, one full dumpster weighed six tons. When we are [composting], it weighs 1,800 pounds.”

The contest has had a huge impact on the Guilford campus, not only physically (the solar panels) but also in the way Guilford views the environment.

“A big part of RecycleMania is yourself,” said Dave Dobson, associate professor of geology. “People need to decide how they want to live their lives and how much impact they want to have on the environment. We need to be stepping up to our environmental rhetoric and keep living up to our principles.”

One of the events Dees is planning as part of Recylemania is a trash audit.

“When the weather gets nicer, I’d like to go around and collect all the trash from the outside public trash cans, then spread it out on a tarp, look at it (and) weigh it,” said Dees. “I want people to think about how much they throw in the trash … if we give people a dose of reality, then maybe we can hit that social change.”

Sophomore Ashley Maciag is highly supportive of the audit.

“I think that this would be a real eye-opener for Guilford college students,” said Maciag. “If we published this information weekly, we may be able to reduce the amount of trash we throw away. It could also help influence people to recycle more.”