Recyclemania!

The 2009 Recyclemania tournament is in its final week, with SMU having thus far collected more than 226 tons of recyclable material since the competition began on Jan. 18.

Although the international competition involving colleges and universities ends Friday, March 27, SMU will continue its year-around effort to be an environmentally friendly campus, said Eric English, SMU's environmental manager.

"We have made great improvements as a University," said English. "We have one more week to make a difference in our recycle totals for this Recyclemania competition, so we invite all members of the SMU community to join in the effort. Our goal is not to stop recycling when Recyclemania ends but to continue to improve so each year we can see the impact we are making on the environment."

Recycling at SMU is coordinated through Campus Planning and Plant Operations and involves single stream recycling, which means all plastics, paper, cardboard, aluminum and other metals are placed in the same container and then later sorted. Marked containers are found in academic and public buildings and in special areas of residence halls, English said. Most offices also have trash cans with clear plastic liners for recyclables.

Recyclemania describes itself as "a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over a 10-week period, schools report recycling and trash data. . ."

SMU is participating in the Benchmark Division, which is less formal than the Competition Division and does not include placement in the official rankings.

Learn more about Recyclemania or Recycling at SMU by visiting their websites.

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