Residence Services host recycling contest

They sit on every floor of every residence hall – the blue bins with the white triangular arrows. Now students can earn points for their residence halls just by dropping in a plastic bottle.

Residence Services is having a recycling contest which will run for the entire month of March. Campus Environment and Operations and Portage County Solid Waste Management are also sponsoring the contest.

Last semester Residence Services had an energy conservation contest, and Marijean Benedik, assistant director for facilities and administrative operations, said recycling is the second part to going green.

The residence halls are broken into nine teams: First Year Experience; Lake and Olson; Stopher and Johnson; Centennial Courts; New Front and Engleman; Allerton; Eastway; Twin Towers; and Korb and Tri-Towers.

Although the prizes aren’t definite, Benedik said the winners will probably receive a pizza party, and every hall that participates will receive a plaque.

Because some halls are larger, the number of residents will be taken into account, said Jim Zentmeyer, associate director for facilities and administrative operations.

Besides getting students to recycle, Residence Services wants to educate students on how to recycle.

IS IT RECYCLABLE? Yes: • Paper: white/colored, mixed office paper, newspaper, magazines, notebooks, Post-It notes, books/phone books • Aluminum/tin cans • Glass • Cardboard • Plastics 1 and 2 bottles, marked on the side or bottom No: • Stained pizza boxes • Hazardous waste • Aerosol cans • Napkins/paper towels/toilet paper • Plastics 3-7 (plastic bags, plastic or Styrofoam dinnerware) • Lightbulbs Source: Residence Services

“We need to make sure we’re letting people know you can throw everything – paper, bottles – everything into one bin,” Benedik said.

In addition to being environmentally-friendly, recycling is also more cost-friendly.

“Recycling for the institution is less expensive than trash going to the landfill,” Zentmeyer said.

Ryan Spellman, a grad assistant for Campus Environment and Operations working as the university recycling coordinator, said recycling is more cost-effective because, unlike materials in a landfill, there isn’t a limit to how many times an aluminum can or paper can be recycled.

Although some may think recycling one pop can doesn’t matter, Zentmeyer said they want to stress the fact that it does.

“We really want to emphasize how the individual can play a part because all too often people think ‘Oh gosh, this is such a large institution, what can one person do?'” he said. “Well, here the competition is based on what one person does.”

Benedik said if Kent State steps up, others in the community will follow.

“We need to show people we’re doing our part to save it and to minimize it, and maybe that will have a positive effect on others in the community too.”

Contact room and board reporter Brittany Moseley at [email protected].