By Rita Cook     

With over 202 schools competing in the Recyclemania national competition, SMU is once again a part of the challenge, which also enables students to take easy steps toward waste reduction and a greener campus in this friendly recycling competition against other colleges and universities taking place from February 5 to March 31.

RecycleMania 2012 is an eight-week competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote recycling in campus communities.  According to a press release, SMU and other schools across the United States and Canada who compete in RecycleMania 2012 will report by weight the amount of recycled material and trash collected each week.  Participating schools are ranked in various categories from week to week and participants can gauge their progress by checking the www.recyclemania.org.

"We are in the middle of the pack at this point in the per capita competition - nothing to brag about, yet," says Kim Cobb, co-chair of the SMU Sustainability Committee, which is co-sponsoring RecycleMania with the student Environmental Society. "But the whole point of this competition is to raise awareness and change behavior. There will come a point where SMU recycles less just because we're using less disposable material - and that's the real goal, isn't it?"

Bragging rights are at stake, since SMU was first among Texas private schools last year in the per capita division – recycling 18.15 pounds of recycled material for each member of the campus community during the competition period.  Directing that reusable material to recycle centers instead of area landfills is estimated to have saved 833,000 gallons of water and 2,023 trees.

Cobb says that in addition to the national competition, SMU residential communities will be competing for inter-campus honors. The residential community with the best recycling record during the competition period will win a pizza party and soft-side water pouches for each of the residents.

Two companion events are being organized for late March to support RecycleMania –

an eco-fashion show featuring student designs made from recycled materials and an art competition “Art of Recycling” challenging participants to use recycled materials.  The art competition is open to students, faculty and staff, and the winner will take home a heavy-duty mountain bike with 18-speed thumb shifter, padded black seat and front and back hand brakes.

At least 75 percent of materials used for each entry should be reused items that otherwise would wind up in a trash or recycling bin. Entries will be judged on “Best Use of Recycled Materials,” “Theme” and “Overall Appearance.”

"The best use of recycled material I have ever seen to date was a curtain made out of old CDs," says Kelly Millazo, the Sustainability Committee member working with the students to organize RecycleMania activities.  "Old CDs and DVDs are very versatile when it comes to art and even functional items. I’ve seen those shiny silver discs used to make wind chimes, wall art, clock and coasters.”

SMU’s recycling rules are easy since anything that can be recycled goes into bright blue plastic recycling bins or trash cans lined with clear bags with the exception of corrugated cardboard, which is placed next to the bins for separate collection by building custodians. Traditional garbage continues to go into the bins lined with black bags.

For more information visit http://smu.edu/sustainability/.

Rita Cook is a freelance writer who has worked as a special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News and other major publications.