From Feb. 6 through April 2, 630 schools across the United States and Canada competed to minimize waste and increase recycling.
According to results posted last Friday on the RecycleMania website, Penn came just about one percentage point short of its goal of a 30-percent cumulative recycling rate, coming in at a 28.94-percent average during the eight-week competition. This puts Penn in 134th place out of 288 schools.
For the sixth year in a row, the overall winner was California State University at San Marco, which recycled a little less than 80 percent. Other schools that fared better than Penn include the College of William and Mary — at just under 56 percent cumulative recycling — and Georgetown University — which recycled about 50 percent. Penn recycled 18.48 percent in 2008, the first year it participated in the competition, and 23.53 percent in 2010.
Over eight weeks, Penn collected 692,434 cumulative recyclable pounds, the 10th highest gross tonnage of recyclables out of 363 schools in its division. Harvard University was third in this category, collecting 915,720 pounds.
At 57.99 pounds of recyclables and trash per person, Penn produced the least amount of waste among the Ivy League.
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