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College hopes to improve recycling for contest

Counting calories will be out and counting garbage in for 2006, if Environmental and Safety Coordinator Jennifer Jordan has her way. Grinnell has entered the RecycleMania contest for the second straight year, and hopes to improve its performance in the three categories tracked: most amount of recyclables, least amount of trash, and highest recycling rate.

The contest began on January 29 and ends April 8. Grinnell is competing against 93 colleges and universities this year, and will recycle from dorms, the dining halls, academic buildings, and offices. All the trash and recyclables from campus buildings will be weighed over the course of the contest.

In an all-campus e-mail exhorting students to support the campaign, Jordan asked students to simply take a moment to think before throwing something in the trash. "Can it be re-used? Can it be recycled?" Jordan wrote.

Last year, Grinnell entered only the recycling amount contest and placed 31 out of 34 schools. For Free the Planet (FTP) co-leader Allison Amphlett ?08, that wasn?t enough.

"It?s really shameful," she said. "Grinnell is seen as a really progressive place, so to fall really far behind against other schools nationally is sad. I hope we do better this year."

-David Montgomery

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