University of TN at Martin receives recycling bin grant

Posted: Monday, April 30, 2012 6:00 pm

The Messenger 04.30.12

The University of Tennessee at Martin’s recycling efforts are paying off, with the school currently in 20th place in the national RecycleMania competition.
The status recently resulted in a grant through the program which allowed the college to place 1,500 recycling bins in campus residence halls.
“We are very grateful to the Alcoa Foundation, Keep America Beautiful, the College & University Recycling Coalition and Dr. Mac Kewn for providing our students a tool to use in their efforts to continue to propel our university’s sustainability initiatives,” said Earl Wright, UT Martin director of housing. “The students, along with the Residence Life staff, are very excited to make use of the recycling bins to help reduce the waste generated in the halls. The bins provide our students and staff an opportunity to work together to help decrease the rate at which the landfills in our community are being filled, and thus decrease the negative impact landfills have on air, water and soil.”
RecycleMania is a friendly competition that aims to change behavior about recycling and raise awareness about waste reduction programs on campuses. During the competition, colleges and universities vie for top awards to see which schools recycle the most on a per capita basis, produce the least amount of waste and recycle the largest percentage of their overall waste.
The recycling bin grant was made possible by the Alcoa Foundation, in partnership with national non-profit Keep America Beautiful and the College & University Recycling Coalition.
The recycling bin grant comes at the same time the UT Martin Department of Housing participated in the national Campus Conservation competition. The contest that ended April 2 encouraged housing residents to reduce their energy consumption through simple tasks like turning off lights and electronics.
In the battle between four on-campus residence halls, Ellington Hall won the competition by reducing its energy consumption by 18.4 percent compared to 2011, and the halls together saved a total of $5,832.22 in energy costs during the competition.

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