RecycleMania hypes waste reduction

The campus is in the full swing of RecycleMania, a nationwide competition that promotes waste reduction across campuses.

The college has two inter-campus competitions, which began Feb. 1 and end on Mar. 27, between Northwoods and Scribner and North Quad and South Quad.

As of Feb. 24, North Quad and Northwoods are in the lead within their respective competitions.

Throughout the country, 607 colleges and universities are registered for this year's contest, which began Jan. 17 and will end on Mar. 27. Some participating schools include Vassar College, Connecticut College, and Bowdoin College, Brown University and Harvard University.

"RecycleMania is a friendly competition between hundreds of Colleges and Universities. I thought it would be fun to get involved and a good way to remind the community about the recycling guidelines. By creating our own competition on campus, my hope is that it will bring greater awareness to the larger RecycleMania initiative," Erica Fuller, Campus Sustainability Coordinator, said.

The victors will have a communal party with food and be awarded a RecycleMania trophy.

The champions are determined by the amount of recycled material per capita of students living in the respective areas. The four recycling containers for each quad or apartment complex are located in the North Woods parking lot.

The main objectives of RecycleMania are to increase waste management awareness in colleges and universities and to promote further waste reduction programs.

"As students, we generate so much waste and it's important to be aware of what we can recycle to reduce our collective amount of waste on campus," Martha Waterman '13, Environmental Action Club (EAC) member, said during the Feb. 22 EAC meeting

An item's SPI resin identification code, which is labeled by 1 and 2, determines which plastics can be recycled.

There are numbers inside of a recycling symbol, which is typically located on the bottom of plastic materials, such as water bottles, detergent containers and peanut butter jars. If the number is not a 1 or 2 the item cannot be recycled. Non-recyclable items include pie pans, light bulbs, drinking glasses and plastic wrap.

The EAC also addressed upcoming events during their meeting.

Eli Dibner-Dunlap '10, EAC member, discussed an upcoming event that will fuse art and environmentalism. The event features Beehive Collective, a collaboration of volunteer artists and educators who display anti-pollution imagery to the public as environmental education tools.

"Beehive Collective collaborated with researchers who explored justice issues in the coal mining areas of West Virginia and Tennessee. They examined stories of the environmental impacts that coal mining creates as well as the human social impacts," Dibner-Dunlap said.

Each year Beehive Collective presents narrative picture-lectures across the country. This March they will visit Skidmore to showcase their campaign, entitled "True Cost of Coal," where sketches and photographs highlight the environmental effects that Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining operations cause.

Inspired by the informal lecture style of the college's Haiti Teach-In on Feb. 1, the EAC will be hosting a Community Dinner and Dialogue on at Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. in the Spa.

The open mic event will be centered on the theme of food, family and friends, and is free of admission for all students, faculty, and staff. The aim of the dinner is to provide a venue for Skidmore community members to have a voice in environmental issues pertaining to campus.

The EAC hopes through this event, to reach out beyond its club's boundaries and to the rest of the community to hear their concerns, interests and ideas.

"Students last semester wanted to create a space for the community to talk about new ideas relative to sustainability in and around campus," Dawn Harfmann, '10, EAC member, said.

Other Updates:

• The Political Action Subcommittee, a branch of the EAC, is brainstorming a long-term plan for the installation of a low coal or coal free main energy source on campus. Their main goal is to communicate with New York Senators about passing a strong climate bill in the U.S. Senate.