Greenville Tech recycles 53 percent of all refuse, achieving an overall ranking of No. 22 out of 605 participants. The state's top five Grand Champions included Furman, Clemson, Erskine College, and the University of South Carolina.
Recyclemania is a competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs designed to encourage waste reduction activities. During an eight-week period each spring, colleges from across the United States and Canada report the amount of recycling and trash collected each week and are ranked in nine different categories including collecting the most waste on a per person basis, recycling rate as a percentage of overall waste, producing the least amount of recyclables and trash per person, and recycling the highest gross tonnage.
The Grand Champion category combines trash and each of the core recyclable materials to determine an institution's recycling rate as a percentage of its overall waste generation. To be ranked in this category, colleges must provide their trash, paper, cardboard and can and bottle weights. A high rank in this category indicates reduced trash disposal through waste prevention along with an effective recycling program.
"It's exciting to me to see that our efforts are paying off," said Kathy Ferrell, a Greenville Tech biology instructor who has been instrumental in establishing sustainability programs on campus. "The Recyclemania competition is a fun way to show that each of us has the ability to impact the environment through our daily decisions and practices."