Green Corner: Recylemania hits Rider, making zero waste a priority

This semester, Rider has once again entered a friendly competition with hundreds of colleges and universities across the nation in this year’s Recyclemania: Race to Zero Waste. Recyclemania is an annual eight-week match aimed at increasing awareness about recycling initiatives and rallying college communities behind them.

The Food Recovery Network reports an estimated 22 million pounds of food waste in the United States come from college campuses. Recyclemania is a fun and important way to start reversing this trend.

This competition is bringing recycling into everyday conversations at Rider. Alex Perrine, junior marketing major and president of Rider’s chapter of the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) community service fraternity, expressed her concern.

“Now more than ever, Americans need to make keeping our oceans and beaches clean a priority,” said Perrine. “Great work is being done in this regard by many organizations, among them Clean Ocean Action, but this responsibility is shared by all of us.” Clean Ocean Action is APO’s new philanthropy. The organization is currently organizing beach-sweeps to help fight litter and pollution.

This momentum shines a light on the dark picture painted by a 2013 Nature.com article. In the article, writers Daniel Hoornweg, Perinaz Bhada-Tata and Chris Kennedy argue that, “Unless we reduce population growth and material consumption rates, the planet will have to bear an increasing waste burden.”

Recyclemania is bringing these important topics back into conversation and building support for the larger cause of sustainability.

Per the latest weigh-in, Rider has recycled 4,227 pounds per capita which puts us in 11th place out of 137 participating schools — the highest of the four concurrent competitions in the Race to Zero Waste. Leading the competition is only one of Rider’s goals; raising awareness on campus and getting students excited about setting their world on a sustainable track is vital.

To participate, anyone can join the Eco Reps on March 2 from 7:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. in the Student Recreation Center Atrium for games and free prizes during our glass and aluminum program. We hope to see you there.

For more information about Recyclemania: Race to Zero waste, please visit www.recyclemaniacs.org or shoot us an email at broncsgogreen@rider.edu. 

—Kenneth Dillon 

Lawrenceville Eco Rep

Printed in the 3/1/17 issue.