Current News

RecycleMania spreads at Connecticut College

February 02, 2009

NEW LONDON, Conn. - By the end of March, every employee and student at Connecticut College will know his or her weight in recyclables. Hoping to top last year's eighth place finish, Connecticut College is once again taking part in RecycleMania - a national recycling competition that will have 510 colleges and universities going head to head to see who can reduce, reuse and recycle the most campus waste.

This will be Connecticut College's fourth year in the competition, which includes a tally of recycled paper, glass, aluminum, steel, plastics and organics generated on campus.

Last year, Connecticut College recycled 44.83 pounds per person and 40.36 percent of the solid waste generated on campus during the 10-week competition. The college finished eighth in both the "Grand Champion" category of the competition, which measures the percentage of the total amount of solid waste recycled on each campus, and in the "Per Capita Classic," which measures the total amount of recyclables collected per person.

RecycleMania began in 2001 and is organized and operated by university recycling coordinators and endorsed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWise program, the National Recycling Coalition's College and University Recycling Council (CURC), and the National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology Program.

A tradition of environmental awareness and caretaking at Connecticut College goes back to 1969, when the college established one of the nation's first environmental majors, "human ecology," now called "environmental studies." The college's arboretum includes 750 acres of natural areas that are used by faculty and students for environmental research projects and provide an oasis of greenery for the public.

For more information about Connecticut College's environmental efforts, visit: http://greenliving.conncoll.edu/. For more on RecycleMania, visit www.recyclemaniacs.org.

Situated on the coast of southern New England, Connecticut College is a highly selective private liberal arts college with 1900 students from all across the country and throughout the world. On the college's 750-acre arboretum campus overlooking Long Island Sound, students and faculty create a vibrant social, cultural and intellectual community enriched by diverse perspectives. The college, founded in 1911, is known for its unique combination of interdisciplinary studies, international programs, funded internships, student-faculty research and service learning. For more information, visit www.connecticutcollege.edu.

-CC-

For media inquiries contact: Amy Martin (860) 439-2526; a.martin@conncoll.edu