MNN - Mother Nature Network

Recyclemania, the EPA's ten-week campus recycling challenge, has 630 colleges and universities across the nation and 14 in Virginia competing to recycle. Smaller schools like William and Mary tend to excel in the recycling-per-capita competition while larger schools have more success in the gorilla prize, awarded to the school with the highest gross tonnage of recycled materials. UVA, for example, has been top ten in the nation since UVA began participating in 2007.

 

The competition seeks to engage students in a variety of ways. A new video competition has had an enormous success this year in reaching a wider audience. For the contest, students create a video "to show their love for recycling" and are awarded points based on number of Likes on Facebook. At UVA, this grassroots social media element has expanded the competition outside of the recycling heads and students already interested in sustainability to include a broader effort by the student body. Both VCU's Video and UVA's Video made the final ten across the country, with UVA in the lead with over 450 Likes.

 

Vote for the videos to make Virginia proud and bring home a Recyclemania champion. With Recyclemania finishing on April 2, it's anyone's game.