Purdue cleans up for competition

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Purdue joined roughly 580 schools nationwide last weekend, participating in a competition called "RecycleMania."

Carmen Martin, president of the student group Boiler Green Initiative, said the rules for RecycleMania are simple: the school with the most recyclables collected wins.

"The goal is to have more recyclable material and less waste per capita than the other schools. There's actually a place where you can see how we're doing. It's www.purdue.edu/recyclemania. We'll be keeping track of all the 'Big 10' schools and all the Indiana schools that are competing on the website," said Martin.

Organizations across Purdue have each adopted one of the competition's 10 weeks and will do what they can to collect recyclables. The Boiler Green Initiative has adopted the first week. Members spent their Sunday cleaning up Mackey Arena after the girls' basketball game.

Martin said there is definitely excitement in the air.

"This is our first year. We are really excited about getting it off with a bang, and making sure everyone knows we are participating, which is why we are really excited about stuff like this," said Martin.

Martin said students are more than happy to get involved.

"Students are willing to recycle. Our recycling rates have actually gone up quite a bit from 25% to 36% in between the education and the changing programs as well as recycling at the football games, so students are receptive to that," said Martin.

Martin adds the competition is not just limited to students.

"It's faculty, community, anyone who wants to be involved is welcome to be involved. The recycling is only counted on campus, but we're glad to encourage people off campus to recycle as well, because if you're in the habit at home, you will be in the habit at work. Anybody that is staff, they generate just as much waste as students, if not more than students because they have so many papers that they have to hand out. So we encourage them to reduce their waste as much as possible, as well," said Martin.

Saving the planet is one reason to recycle but the competition adds another: good old college rivalry.

"I think it will be a really exciting competition because we are competing against Notre Dame and Ohio State which are two of our big rivals. And I think it will catch on because anything where we can beat those schools that is great," said Martin.

To find out more about this competition, you can check out the RecycleMania website.