Kent State will be participating in a national recycling initiative, RecycleMania, which begins on Feb. 7 and runs through April 2.

RecycleMania is a nationwide competition between college and universities that promotes waste reduction and encourages proper recycling on campus.

“RecycleMania provides tools and opportunities that inspire, empower, and mobilize colleges and universities to benchmark and improve efforts to reduce or eliminate waste,” according to the organization’s website, recyclemaniacs.org

Chris Tankersley, assistant director of Administrative Operations, said RecycleMania sets out to remind students about the importance of recycling.

“We have a blue recycle bin in every student room and we have a clip on the bin to make it very clear on what is able to be recycled,” Tankersley said.

Each year, a friendly competition between Akron and Kent State is held to see who can recycle the most products. The prize for the winner, along with bragging rights, is the Braggin’ Wheel, a travelling trophy made out of recyclable materials.

“We go against Akron for the Braggin’ Wheel,” Tankersley said. “The trophy is currently housed here at home.”

Jill Church, director of Residence Services, says that there will be events and marketing for the initiative across campus, especially in the residence halls.

“Each week we weigh the amount of recyclable material collected from each residence hall,” Church said. “We take an average, because some buildings are larger than others, to determine the winner each week and then there is a winner at the end.”

The hall with the largest amount of materials recycled at the close of Recycle Mania will receive additional allocations to their hall council funding, allowing for extra events to be held in the hall.

Abigail Allen, sophomore fashion merchandising minor, lives in the dorms and usually recycles.

“I normally recycle, but I think that people need to be informed on what can and can’t be recycled,” Allen said. “Having events to teach people about the specifics and to promote recycling is definitely going to raise the effort.”

Weekly RecycleMania events will be held encouraging students to get involved.

“Each week, there will be a new competition held for students and this will give them the ability to win prizes and learn more about recycling,” Tankersley said.

Church said that RecycleMania is important on both a local and a global scale.

“The larger, educational goal of why we do it is to make students aware of the advantages and benefits of recycling for both the community here, and globally … the importance of the impact we can have,” Church said.

Tankersley reminded students that by practicing conservation on campus, it ultimately helps to keep tuition costs stable.

“If students can help control utility costs, it’s less that the university has to pass on to students year-to-year in tuition costs,” Tankersley said.

Charleah Trombitas is an activities reporter for The Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].