As of Friday, Jan. 30, Facilities Services began distributing 6,000 new recycling bins at UT Knoxville, more than doubling the number of recycling receptacles on campus. The seven-gallon desk-side bins are to be used for paper recycling, and will be placed in major office buildings beginning with Stokely Management Center and including South and East Stadium Halls, McClung Tower and Andy Holt Tower.
The bin distribution takes place in conjunction with RecycleMania, an annual, intercollegiate recycling and waste reduction competition that kicked off at UT Knoxville on Jan. 20, and continues through March 28. Each week, recycling and trash collected from every building on campus will be measured and reported, comparing UT Knoxville with the 509 other colleges and universities competing nationwide.
More than 100 tons of material, including 56 tons of paper, were recycled during the 2008 competition. The addition of the new bins will help the university reach its goal of increasing competition recycling yields by 30 percent. Approximately 1,000 tons of total material were recycled on campus during the 2007-2008 school year.
Nationally, RecycleMania is sponsored and produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise Program, the National Recycling Coalition, the College and University Recycling Council and Coca-Cola. More information and rankings can be found on the national RecycleMania Web site at http://www.recyclemania.org, and on the RecycleMania – University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Chapter Facebook page.
For more information, contact Alexandra Virtanen at (865) 974-2510 or avirtanen@utk.edu.