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Cougars rally for RecycleMania

UH’s colors may be Scarlet and Albino White, but green is the color on Cougar minds as the University launched its first year participating in RecycleMania on Wednesday.

RecycleMania pits UH against nearly 500 other universities all over the country in a friendly competition to see which school recycles the most and wastes the least during the next 10 weeks.

‘We’re looking to make it an event that changes behavior,’ staff assistant Vice President of University Service Emily Messa said. ‘We didn’t want to just focus on the recycling. We’re looking at reducing and reusing and how to incorporate all of those pieces into our daily lives.’

Schools will be recognized in categories such as top recycling per capita, least waste production and highest amount of total recycling. Last year’s RecyleMania recycled 58.6 million pounds total.

UH has a strong chance of earning a high rank in recycled materials per capita, Messa said, but the University’s RecycleMania is about more than national recognition. The program is also helping UH organize and formalize how it tracks waste production and recycling, giving the school an idea of how it compares to other universities and how it can improve its own programs.

‘It will provide us a way we can look at ourselves in a measurable way,’ she said. ‘We go through a lot of stuff.’

Based on existing UH records, last semester saw an average weekly recycling load of about 13,000 pounds of mixed office paper and about 34,000 pounds of cardboard.

Messa said she hopes the effects of RecycleMania last long after the closing ceremony of the program in March, as students, faculty and staff develop good habits, such as teaching about Houston’s available public transportation with Metro and planting a Campus Produce Garden on Feb. 5 at Lynn Eusan Park.

RecycleMania is looking for volunteers to become ‘Recyclemaniacs’ and help in the various programs going on over the 10 weeks. Events range from going door-to-door in the residence halls to ask for recyclable materials or catching people ‘green-handed’ and rewarding them with stickers to show that they’re living green – recycling correctly, not wasting food at meal-times, riding bikes or other energy-savers.

Messa says she’s seen students, faculty, staff and even members of the community getting excited about recycling initiatives.

At the kick-off pep rally for the program Wednesday at the University Center Satellite, students led cheers about recycling and said they approved of the effort.

‘It’s nice to see that the University is going to do something to make a difference,’ public relations senior Jennifer Irons said. ‘We really could make an impact.’

Both Irons and health senior Roya Bailey, UH cheerleaders who participated in the rally, said they were pleased the event was receiving attention from local media and hoped it inspired the greater Houston area to live green.

‘We always try to be involved with the community,’ said Bailey.

Members of the fraternity Kappa Sigma said they will volunteer for the RecycleMania effort and will be promoting recycling at parties at their house by setting up separate trash receptacles for aluminum cans.

‘All of our supplies will be recycled,’ Hotel and Restaurant Management senior Dion Pearson said. ‘Kappa Sigma supports recycling.’

More information on RecycleMania at UH, including lists of materials that are safe to recycle and forms to sign up to volunteer, is available at www.uh.edu/recyclemania.

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