Lynchburg College is ranked 59th in a national competition to reduce waste on college and university campuses, just weeks after campus-wide recycling came to LC, but an on-campus recycling demonstration shows much more can be done.
LC is 59th in the waste minimization category of RecycleMania, just behind Harvard University and ahead of Brown University. LC is ranked 126th in the "Gorilla" category for total amount recycled, just ahead of Bridgewater College.
The College has recycled 33,314 pounds of material in the first nine weeks of the 10-week competition, which ends April 5.
For the first quarter of 2008, LC's total recycling figures (courtesy Curtis Layne, director of campus grounds) are as follows:
OCC (corrugated cardboard) - 22,120 lbs.
Plastic bottles - 2,510 lbs.
Mixed office paper - 18,260 lbs.
Scrap metal - 4,614 lbs.
Confidential shredding - 2,352 lbs.
Aluminum products - 1,198 lbs.
Members of the LC Natural Resources Committee staged a recycling demonstration April 1 to show students how much of their trash can be recycled. About 40 percent of the material sorted from 30 bags of residential waste could have been recycled.
Students in the Alliance for Energy Awareness, who are planning Earth Day activities for the campus, will have another recycling demonstration on April 22.
LC is participating in RecycleMania as part of its Year of the Environment: A Greener Tomorrow Today initiative and to meet part of the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, a pledge to reverse the actions that lead to global warming. LC President Kenneth Garren is one of the charter signatories who agreed to develop a plan to reduce use of greenhouse gases. For more information, visit http://www.recyclemaniacs.org/Index.htm