After 10 weeks of arduous can collecting, paper conserving, and waste reducing, RecycleMania finally came to a conclusion on April 7.
In the three years since Boston College first participated in the competition, this is its best finish yet, placing 16th out of 201 colleges and universities nationwide.
Statewide, BC ranked even higher: Of the 12 Massachusetts universities that participated, BC placed second. The rankings took into consideration the total population of the university, which includes students, faculty, and staff, and the total amount collected trash.
About 392,225 pounds of garbage produced by 14,309 people were collected, which averages to 27.41 pounds of trash recycled per person. On average, each individual recycled approximately 2.74 pounds of garbage each week.
With these results, BC finished way ahead of where it did last year. In 2006, BC recycled at a rate of 17.8 percent and took 33rd place out of 93 colleges and universities. This year, the rate of recycling nearly doubled, reaching 33.63 percent.
Katherine Walsh, a member of EcoPledge who was highly involved with RecycleMania and A&S '08, attributed the dramatic increase in recycling and overall student involvement in the program to multiple factors.
EcoPledge collaborated with Facilities Services to enable BC's participation in the competition. Since both groups had experience with RecycleMania in previous years, they were better able to promote and organize the University's efforts.
As part of the BConserves campaign, there was a movie event in which Too Hot to Handle was shown, and "BC Unplugged" T-shirts were given away. Additionally, there were banners and fliers around campus and e-mails sent out to the BC community to help increase knowledge about both the RecycleMania and Better Off competitions and get students involved.
Better Off, a program sponsored in part by the Office of Residential Life, focused on energy conservation in residence halls.
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