When is Scarlet Green? When Rutgers Tops National Recyclemania 2007 Competition; Rutgers wins in two categories, places in top five in four others

April 30, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WHEN IS SCARLET GREEN?

WHEN RUTGERS TOPS NATIONAL RECYCLEMANIA 2007 COMPETITION

Rutgers wins in two categories, places in top five in four others

-->

New Brunswick, N.J. In only its second year of participation, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, made an impressive showing in RecycleMania 2007, collecting more recyclable materials than any other college or university participating in the 10-week competition.

Rutgers won the Gorilla Prize by collecting more than 2.7 million pounds of recyclables. The closest contender, Stanford University, collected half that amount. Rutgers also took the Food Service Organics Prize by recycling the largest amount of organic food waste (71.2 pounds) per person on campus.

RecycleMania is an annual nationwide friendly competition among college and university recycling programs to reduce waste and promote recycling on their campuses. This year, 201 institutions from 42 states and the District of Columbia participated.

Rutgers placed a close second in the Grand Champion category with a recycling rate of more than 57 percent, demonstrating that the university, according to RecycleMania, excelled in source reduction and waste prevention.

A hallmark of this great university is that we strive for excellence in all that we do, said Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick. Just as we are a leader in academics and athletics, we have consistently been on the cutting edge of recycling practices and technology. I extend my wholehearted congratulations and deepest thanks to all of the members of the Rutgers community who make our recycling efforts a success.

Rutgers also placed second in the Bottles and Cans category, recycling more than 19 pounds of bottles and cans per person on campus. In addition, Rutgers placed in the top five in two other categories: the Per Capita Classic, in which schools compete to collect the largest amount of acceptable recyclables (Rutgers collected 72.58 pounds per person); and Corrugated Cardboard, in which schools compete to recycle the largest amount of corrugated cardboard (Rutgers recycled 31.33 pounds per person). No other school placed in the top five in as many categories as Rutgers.

This was a universitywide effort, said Dianne Gravatt, director of Environmental Services and Grounds. We are particularly proud of the tireless work of the custodians and grounds people who collect and sort through tons of material every day. The Dining Services staff made a tremendous effort; last year they recycled more than 6,000 tons of food waste, nearly 240 tons of cardboard and 4.5 tons of glass plastic and cans. In addition, the students in Rutgers housing increased their recycling rate by more than 20 percent.

In 2005 the most recent year for which numbers are available Rutgers recycling program prevented the release of more than 4,400 metric tons of carbon equivalent into the atmosphere. This reduction is green house gases is equivalent to removing 3,480 passenger cars from the road for a year or saving the amount of electricity consumed by 2,000 households.

This shows that the university community is willing to take the extra step toward the recycling can, which is actually a huge leap in our goal to preserve the resources we enjoy today for generations to come, said Magda Comeau, green purchasing program manager. But this is just a snapshot of what we do everyday, year-round, to try to make Rutgers the greenest university system in the nation.

RecycleMania 2007 took place from January 28 to April 7. Detailed results of the competition are available at http://www.recyclemania.org/results.asp.

Contact: E.J. Miranda

732-932-7084, Ext. 613

E-mail: emiranda@ur.rutgers.edu

# # #

Recyclemania07.rel.ed

070430-1

-->