Green Corner: Green contest mania

Do you regularly recycle your bottles, cans, paper products and techno trash? What about taking a reusable bag on shopping trips? If these actions are part of your daily life, then get ready to help Rider participate in this year’s Recyclemania competition.
Daily, 4.38 pounds of trash are generated by each American, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Continuing at this rate, well over one ton of waste is created by each person in a year. These values can only be changed through actions such as recycling, reusing, upcycling, and — most importantly — reducing excess. The eight-week Recyclemania contest is held nationally to spread understanding of this truth. By sharing recycling facts and history, and helping students to learn and adopt sustainable lifestyles, the competition aims towards decreasing the amount of waste sent to landfills.
Eco-Reps continue to move around campus each week with exciting information about recycling, but this year we’re bringing a new component to our tables and your phones. Students will be encouraged to record their sustainable actions by posting their steps toward sustainability, or uploading a green-deed selfie on Twitter or the MyActions app. Each time a student, staff or faculty member logs his or her actions in accordance with the challenge, Rider gets a point added to our school’s total score. All contributions are important for our campus goals of sustainability, and winning the challenge would demonstrate the level of commitment to going green that is present within the Bronc community.
As a part of this 3R Actions Challenge, themes for social media posting differ every two weeks. The contest kicked off Feb. 1 with recycling as the theme. Cutting back on single-use items is the next topic, so be sure to post about doing things like participating in the Green to Go program or filling up at Elkay units between Feb. 15-28. The next theme is waste reduction, beginning March 1, which includes actions from double-sided printing to taking notes online. Rounding out the topics, from March 15-28, zero waste actions are highlighted. These include biodegradable items, composting food scraps, and many other creative initiatives.
Ways of decreasing trash are readily available at Rider, and just as easily adopted at home. By demonstrating these types of sustainable choices on campus, students can encourage others to do the same, and carry a green lifestyle into their futures.   For more information about how you can participate in the challenge, go to the Recyclemania page in the Broncs Go Green section of Rider’s website.

-Lexi Reynolds
Lawrenceville Eco-Rep

Printed in the 02/11/15 issue.