Tufts Recycles! - RecycleMania

Tales From Week 8: The Final Countdown!!!

Hey all, welcome back and hope you all had some fantastic and relaxing spring breaks! Admittedly, my body (and rapier’s wit) had been suffering something awful from the physical exhaustion of racing from trash can to trash can to remove recyclable materials. The pace of life just slowed down for a minute. A little composting here, recycle a can of “soda” there, a couple of bike rides to the ol’ battery recycling depot. You know, how all the kids these days relax for their spring breaks.

Now, as we return we enter the final throes of the contest. Because of the two week lag between submitted scores and results this is, in fact, the final week to make an impact.

For those of you (and thanks to all three of you!) that have been tuning in:

We return at much the same place as we left off. The little generals at the Mass Maritime Academy are still doing their thing, the beast at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering is only getting stronger, and BC and Berkshire Community are still within striking distance.

We now sit in 40th place and 21st in the per capita challenge.

It is time for some true reconnaissance mission type work. Aside from the obvious sorts of things like raiding Staples and emptying the entire cache into your dorm’s recycling bin(s) see if there are more ways to integrate recycling into your life.

Namely: Really get to know and take advantage of the recycling resources on campus

http://www.tufts.edu/tuftsrecycles/howtorecycle.html

and

If you are already on the ball with cutting down your waste, encourage your friends to make choices that could impact theirs.

http://www.tufts.edu/tuftsrecycles/tips.html

Good luck during these final weeks!

(Demoralizing) Tales From Week 6

More of the same here. This week we moved one place down in the rankings in both the Grand Champion and Per Capita Challenge to 37th and 19th respectively. We still sit in 5th place in Massachusetts.

Now, of these Massachusetts Schools, The Massachusetts Maritime Academy has finally knocked off its Cheshire Cat routine – here one week, out of the rankings entirely the next - and is a mainstay in first place. It doesn’t look like that is going to change. From the looks of their website, these are a dedicated breed of seafaring people who once set in their ways will be hard pressed to dethrone from their pedestal.

And, God bless ‘em, their ways seem Hell bent on recycling. Kudos MMA. We salute you.

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, with all of their ingenuity, seems to have invented some sort of demented trash eating super beast that turns non-recyclable plastics and roofing shingles into corrugated cardboard. Their emergence into 2nd place came out of nowhere based on their early returns in the contest. Soon, the beast may die and they may come back down to earth. Who knows. But for now their 12% lead on us is daunting to say the least.

HOWEVER, the other of the schools in front of us; Boston College and Berkshire Community College – we could easily take them down. And that’s where our sights must be set right now. BC sits a paltry 2% above us and BCC a mere 0.05%.

0.05%???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, seriously… you there, reading this right now. Throw your notebook that contains all of your notes from the semester into the recycling bin. DO IT NOW!!! NOW!!!!!!!

Ok, great. Now we’re in 4th. See how easy that was?

Anyway, be well and recycle strong. Until next week… well, keep recycling strong then also. But I will now leave you until next week. Aaaaanyway. Later gators.

(devastating) Tales From Week 5

I’m gonna keep this brief. I don’t know what you all thought was going to happen to all of the confetti, origami swans, and “soda” cans from our RecycleMania victory party last week BUT AS IT TURNS OUT IT SURE WASN’T RECYCLED!!!

This past week we were passed by Berkshire Community College, we were passed by The Franklin B. Olin College of Engineering, and we were passed by… arch nemesis Boston College. Also, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy mysteriously appeared again and dominated as it seems to do every other week. Where do they even come from?

These are the colleges that we’ve been neck and neck with all year. One blink and BAM they’ve passed us.

In successive weeks we have dropped from 23rd, to 28th, to 36th. The good people at Tufts Recycles HQ can hardly be consoled as it is… but a drop to 40th would just be devastating. So think of us and our families and futures and GET BACK IN THE GAME!!! The final weeks are upon us so and each and every one of you must find it within yourself to pitch in and give one final push to the finish line. I want to see us back in the mid-twenties by next week!

Oh, and somehow we moved up to 18th in the per capita challenge standings. Who knows, eh?

Tales From Week 4

Another day another week of Recyclemania…

…does that even make sense? Hrm. Not really. How about: Another week, another RecycleMania update? That works a little better. I don’t know, “another week” doesn’t quite have the ring to it I was looking for…

Aaaanyway, the point is that we’ve reached that time in the semester. The doldrums. The freshness of starting the year anew is gone but urgency of finals has not yet sunk in. You wake up and you’re all like “Man, do I really want to recycle today or am I just going through the motions. I mean really, I have 300 pages of reading from last week’s classes, 64 leftover “soda” cans and 5 glass “juice” bottles from the weekend’s cadavers, 17 stray used batteries, a broken computer – lord only knows how that happened, 4 nalgene bottles, 6 salad trays (weird), and a moldy pop tart on my desk. Not only that but it’s still $#&*%ing cold outside! How will I ever recycle it all?!”

Well, first off, you can’t recycle pop tarts. Those are compostable. That’s different. Everything else… good to be recycled. (check out www.tuftsrecycles.org for more info)

Second, I know it’s hard to motivate for the daily grind. BUT WE’RE DOING IT! Tufts is recycling more than ever before… and now that the results have gone cumulative we are starting to rise in the standings. We are #1 for Massachusetts in both the grand champion category and the per capita classic.

In a RecycleMania that is more competitive (and possibly more dubious) than ever before every little bit can help our standings and our standing as a green school in general. So don’t look at that whole pile all at once. Take sizable chunks; go paper by paper and can by can so we can power through these middle weeks of RecycleMania and position ourselves for a strong finish!

Be well, and recycle strong!

Tales From Week 3

Well, apparently last week’s defeat to Boston College lit a fire under our collective recycling butts. Lads, we kicked recycling tuckus this week, raising the bar with a recycling rate of 46.48. That’s a Tufts record as far as I can see and it was good enough for 23rd place and second in Massachusetts – besting ALL of our major competitors! In the per capita challenge we were 22nd nationally and #1 in the state! These are good days in the recycling office, lads.

What’s more, when these results (finally) go cumulative instead of week by week… don’t take my word for it… but I think we’re in for a pleasant surprise.

Now, just let’s take a moment, sit back and take a puff from our recycling victory cigar made from the finest… well it doesn’t really matter what it’s made from. Just sit back and feel what the top of the recycling heap feels like.

Feels good, doesn’t it?!

Remember that feeling. This is feeling you get from hard work, sweat, tears, and most importantly a commitment towards waste reduction. This is the way we want to feel EVERY week. *Sniff* you guys make me so PROUD!

So enjoy… NOW GET BACK TO IT!!!

Tales From Week 2

Week two results are in. The good news is as a university, Tufts is recycling at a very high rate. Our rates from the first two weeks eclipse our rates from last year by a good margin.

The medium news is that swaths of uncertainty once again prevail in the rankings. This week’s results placed us at a modest 43rd place in the Grand Champion standings and 23rd in the Per Capita challenge. However, these are one week totals only and do not account for offsets in when trash and recycling are picked up. For example, certain schools that are not recycling very much per capita scored quite high this week. The bottom line: the Grand Champion results so far make no sense. However, next week, RecycleMania will start publishing cumulative statistics which will more accurately reflect our ranking than any measure thus far.

Now for the bad news… and really, it’s not pretty. Now is the time to remove sharp objects from your grasp. If there are any young children in the room shield their ears starting now. Ready? Are you sure?

We were beaten by Boston College this week, dropping us to 4th in the Massachusetts weekly standings.

Look, let’s be honest. I’m sure a lot of the BC students are nice, down home type of kids. The kind of kids you see on the street and say “wow, what a straight tie!” Good kids. But are they better recyclers than Tufts? We’ll see about that. Frankly, it looks like we’ll be neck and neck in the standings with them. It is tantamount, TANITMOUNT I SAY, that we remain ahead of them and EVERY sheet of paper, every can, every battery (did you know we recycle batteries?) may make the difference.

On that note, recycle strong!

Want the skinny on how to “recycle strong” at Tufts? Check out:

http://www.tufts.edu/tuftsrecycles/howtorecycle.html

For a full report on the standings check out the RecycleMania homepage at:
www.recyclemania.com

Tales From Week 1

Now, I’m not making excuses but a lot of peculiar things went on during the first week of RecycleMania. PecuLIAR indeed. Note the emphasis on LIAR. We figure that different approaches that various schools take towards trash collection have vaulted a few schools up to the top of the standings. I.e. if you collect trash every other week then it inflates the recycling rate over a one week period. There are some ridiculous recycling rates being reported by schools new to the competition that, as much as we would like to believe them for the sake of the planet, we don’t. There are also a number of competing schools that have not submitted their first week’s data*. Given these factors, it’s hard to say where we really stand. Still, at the end of the day we came in 4oth for the first week… which is disappointing.

There is some good news from the land of RecycleMania. Our recycling rate is up from last year so far. We finished 16 th in the Per Capita challenge, which for a number of reasons may better represent our actually standing.

And… we are beating Harvard, B.C. and MIT so far. No big deal. In fact, the only two Massachusetts colleges that are ahead of us are Suffolk and The Ma. Maritime Academy… and we suspect these two colleges won’t stay ahead for long based on the factors mentioned above. We could take Massachusetts this year, lads! Let’s set that as the goal.

For a full report on the standings check out the RecycleMania homepage at:

www.recyclemania.com

or check out Tufts’ own RecycleMania site at:

www.tuftsrecycles.org/recyclemania

Be well and recycle strong!

*I’M STARING STRAIGHT AT YOU AMHERST COLLEGE. WE SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOU AND YOUR STEALTHY, NON-REPORTING WAYS! WE ARE WATCHING YOU, AMHERST COLLEGE.

Recyclemania is in full gear, RIGHT NOW!

This year it's bigger than ever. The competition includes 337 schools and 173 additional schools are competing in the "benchmark division" as a means of evaluating their recycling program. That's 510 total schools for those of you less inclined towards math. Check out the full list below. In particular, scroll to the Massachusetts schools and read over that list. Within moments any reasonable person will quickly notice his/her blood rising to a steady boil at the mere thought of suffering a recycling defeat to the likes of Harvard, Amherst, or Brandeis. Ugh. It's the kind of thing that makes you really reconsider all of the things that can be recycled at Tufts.

What does this mean for our staff?

How can students get involved?

What about RAs and other campus leaders?

What if I am off campus??

back to Tufts RecycleMania home

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