Reusing ideas to recycle and reduce waste

Organizers of this year's RecycleMania run are using new techniques to encourage on-campus recycling - but they're recycling ideas from last year, too.

Although last week marked the beginning of RecycleMania's second run at Penn, the competition won't formally begin until Thursday, when a kickoff event at Houston Hall will feature director of the Mayor's Office of Sustainability Mark Hughes speaking about ways Penn and Philadelphia can work together to improve environmentalist efforts.

Recyclemania, a 10-week national competition among over 400 colleges and universities, began Jan. 18 and will last until Mar. 18. Though RecycleMania hosts several contests, its two main goals are reducing waste and increasing recycling.

The Green Campus Partnership is organizing Penn's RecycleMania effort, aided by Business Services, College Houses and Academic Services, Facilities and Real Estate Services, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, the Penn Environmental Group and the Undergraduate Assembly.

Nationally, the first two weeks serve as a trial period, when participating schools can initiate their own programs and spread word about the campaign. Results are not tallied and recorded until the trial period concludes.

"We want to see how we start off in comparison to other schools," explained College sophomore and PEG co-chairwoman Jenna Stahl.

She added, "A lot of people didn't know what [RecycleMania] was until it was finished," explaining that with more time to prepare this year, she expects to get the message across sooner.

But even when the national competition organizers begin reporting results, the information will be posted a week late.

According to Business Services spokeswoman Barbara Lea-Kruger, Penn will tally the information from the previous week on a Tuesday and relay the information to Nationals by Wednesday, which then posts the results to their Web site a couple days later.

Last week, Penn promoted RecycleMania with a reusable mug reward campaign, a tactic used last year. Throughout RecycleMania, students can bring reusable mugs to Einstein Bros. Bagels in Houston Market on Fridays from 10-11 a.m. to receive a complementary coffee or to any Au Bon Pain on Mondays and receive a free coffee or fountain drink with a purchase.

Last week's events also included the launching of the art and video contests, and the film Flow, about the planet's water supply, was shown Thursday night, marking the first part of a ReycleMania film series at the Penn Bookstore.

This week, Penn's Recyclemania will work with PEG and the GCP's Green Week agenda to promote environmental awareness and education.

On Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the ARCH, there will be a lecture on the "Ecology of Architecture" delivered by experts in the field. On Thursday, RX Restaurant will host a dinner and conversation with its owner and chef on urban nutrition and locally grown food.

"The real objective is to engage a large and diverse population of faculty, students and staff to communicate how our behavior is relevant to our success as a sustainable institution," said Vice President of Facilities and Real Estate Services Anne Papageorge in a press release. "It truly is a pledge for all of us to make a necessary cultural shift in our everyday activities."

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