Congratulations Rutgers faculty and staff! You helped recycle more than 2.7 million pounds of waste, bringing Rutgers a first-place prize in this year’s RecycleMania competition.

That gargantuan number brought Rutgers the “Gorilla Prize” for the most cumulative pounds of recyclables. The closest contender, Stanford University, recycled only half Rutgers’ amount.

Rutgers also placed second in the grand champion competition with a recycling rate of 57 percent. Small schools rounded out the top five, with Cal State San Marcos placing first, and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Kalamazoo College, and the University of San Francisco finishing out the category. The size of the top finishers made Rutgers’ rate of recycling all the more impressive.

In addition, Rutgers placed first for recycling the most food and organic material per person, second for recycling the most bottles and cans per person, and third for recycling the most corrugated cardboard per person.

According to the contest website, the total pounds recycled during RecycleMania 2007 prevented greenhouse gas emissions of 15,583 metric tons of carbon equivalent from entering the atmosphere. This equates to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that is approximately equivalent to:

• 12,367 passenger cars not driven for one year

• 10,221 passenger cars and light trucks not driven for one year
  

• 6,507,707 gallons of gasoline

• 132,878 barrels of oil 

• 7,335 household electricity use for one year (number of households)

• 468 acres of forest preserved from deforestation 

• 1,465,068 tree seedlings grown for 10 years

Full results of the RecycleMania competition

To celebrate Rutgers' win, Green Purchasing Project Manager Magda Comeau is organizing an hourlong event featuring display tables and giveaways on Friday, May 4 from noon to 1 p.m. The events will take place at Busch Dining Hall, Brower Commons, Neilson Dining Hall, Tillett Hall, Alexander Library, Kilmer Library, the Library of Science and Medicine, as well as all five student centers on the New Brunswick Campus.

- Ashanti M. Alvarez