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KNOXVILLE — In the spirit of friendly competition and going green, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is hosting its first-ever Recyclympics on March 19 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the TRECS Intramural Fields. Students, faculty and staff will compete in various events such as a recycled phone book shot-put, dumpster dive, aluminum can crush and recycle pong.
Participants can register on site. The cost of participation is a bag of recyclable material such as empty bottles and cans. RecycleMania T-shirts will be given to the first 50 participants to register, and prizes will be awarded to the individual and team participants who score the most points in a variety of activities.
RecycleMania aims to increase recycling participation by students and staff and raise awareness about the significance of waste reduction programs on campuses. It is part of the university’s efforts to become “climate neutral.”
“We hope that people get the vision that they can do something about recycling,” said Jay Price, environmental coordinator. “Recycling is important for the environment and for us economically, too, because it helps save money and resources.”
Recyclympics is part of RecycleMania, which is a 10-week competition among more than 600 college and university recycling programs. For this year’s competition, UT Knoxville’s recycling program has decided to take on the University of Florida. The goal is to recycle more than the Gators. The latest tally shows the Volunteers have recycled 4.16 pounds per person, while the Gators have recycled 7.13 pounds per person. The Recyclympics is the Vols’ chance to boost UT Knoxville’s standings before RecycleMania ends on March 27.
The Recyclympics are sponsored by UT Recycles, Make Orange Green and UT Athletics. For more information about the Recyclympics, RecycleMania and the UT Knoxville recycling program, visit http://www.pp.utk.edu/Recycle.
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C O N T A C T:
Jay Price (865-974-9409, jayprice@utk.edu)