Last year, the University of Miami participated in the Recycle Mania competition among 400 colleges to determine who could recycle the most items. This year, it’s war.
Floor Wars, a recycling competition between the 12 floors and both towers of Hecht, began Feb. 27 and will continue until April 22, which is also Earth Day.
UNICCO, the company that provides the university’s janitorial services, already collects and keeps records of how much aluminum, plastic and glass are recycled in each floor’s recycling bins. Those numbers will be tallied for residents to see their progress.
Floor Wars was started by resident assistants in Hecht, the dorm that recycled the most in last year’s Recycle Mania competition.
Floors three and four in McDonald Tower are tied for first place, and results will be updated tomorrow. Prizes have not been finalized, but Hecht is aiming to get a tree in the arboretum dedicated to the floor that wins.
“I think the idea for a competition between the floors to improve recycling is a great idea,” said Greg Potteiger, a freshman. “It could be very successful as long as students participate and there’s some incentive for them to do it.”
As far as student participation goes, many students who spoke with The Miami Hurricane said they aren’t actually paying too much attention to Floor Wars.
“I just do what I normally do,” said Matt Diehl, a sophomore.
There are no competitions similar to Floor Wars in other residential colleges, but each dorm has a recycling room on every floor, a battery pickup and drop-off box and recycling in the lobby. Earlier this year, Stanford showed An Inconvenient Truth and gave free pizza to anyone who brought recyclables.
Brook Frazier may be contacted at b.frazier@umiami.edu.
Recycling bins are located at the Law School Quadrangle, Allen Hall, Memorial, Cox, UC Patio and all residential colleges; pick-ups are done weekly
Last year the University of Miami placed 120 out of 140 schools for most paper recycled, and 146 out of 149 for most bottles and cans recycled.