Sustainability at Plymouth State

PSU has been competing for 4 weeks in the national Recyclemania competition and there are still 4 weeks to go. Please do your part and recycle at Plymouth State University to help demonstrate our commitment to the environment!

We are happy to share that so far this year Plymouth State University’s Recyclemania results are the best they have ever been. Through the efforts of Physical Plant and the Office of Environmental Sustainability we have been able to track and record the weight of trash and recyclables thrown out each week on campus. We now have the results as of week 3 of the competition in the categories PSU is competing in this year: Grand Champion, Per Capita Classic, Gorilla, and Waste Minimization.

The Grand Champion category tracks the recycling rate of each college by measuring the pounds of recycling and dividing by the total amount of waste collected (recyclables + trash). As of week 3 in the competition PSU ranks 57^th out of 250 participating schools nationwide! So far during the competition 41% of the waste generated on campus is recycled.

The Per Capita Classic category measures the amount of recycling produced by schools on a per capita basis (pounds of recyclables per person). In this category of the Recyclemania competition PSU ranks 163^rd out of 402 participating schools. As a university each person recycles an average of 3.64 pounds of recyclables each week during the competition so far.

The Gorilla category measures the total amount of recycling generated by each school. We currently rank 194^th out of 407 schools in this category. It is important to note that this category of the competition does not produce standardized measures, so the size of a school is a big factor in performance in this measure. During Recyclemania so far we have produced 21,600 pounds of recycling.

The fourth category of the competition which we are participating in is Waste Minimization. This category tracks which schools can produce the least amount of total waste, generated in both trash and recycling, on a per capita basis. At PSU we have always considered this our most important category in the competition, as having a lot of recyclables indicates a lot of consumption, which may not be our goal. As of week 3 in the competition Plymouth State University ranked 47^th out of 178 participating schools from across the nation! This data indicate that each person on campus produces about 8.8 pounds of waste each week.

We are doing great in the competition so far, and are number one in the state of New Hampshire in the Grand Champion and Waste Minimization categories.  Let’s try to beat Keene State, the #1 college in New Hampshire in the Per Capita Classic and Gorilla categories, by increasing the amount of waste which we recycle!