The results for the Recyclemania competition were revealed Friday. Miami University finished 76 out of around 380 colleges in the Per Capita Classic after finishing in the top 10 in the eight years preceding 2008, according to David Miller, a first year graduate student for the Institute for Environment Sustainability. Students and faculty cite different reasons as to why Miami is finishing much lower than it used to for the better part of the decade when Miami took part in founding the competition.
"I don't think it was advertised enough on campus," said first-year Andrew Hogan, a member of Miami's Environmental Awareness program. "Emails should've been sent."
While students and environmentalists here blame the people in charge of Recyclemania for the lack of advertising, Miller cites other reasons for the "fluctuating" results.
"There was a rule change in 2008 where Recyclemania counted recycling in the whole campus rather than just the residence halls," Miller said. "After that, we went from top 10, to 39th and then all the way down to 139th last year. I believe that it is a convenience issue."
Miami plans to begin placing recycling bins in classrooms this summer. Miami has already placed some in Shideler Hall classrooms. "I also think it's an education issue," Miller said. "I don't think all students realize that they can recycle plastics one through seven at Miami. Students also don't seem to know that when they throw away trash or food in recycle bins, that it contaminates the entire bin and it gets thrown out."
When asked why emails weren't sent to students about Recyclemania, Miller said those involved with Recyclemania and everyone else on campus are restricted by the communications department and cannot send out mass emails.
"I think we did a better job with advertising this year," he said. "We put posters up everywhere. I also thought we did better because we started counting all kinds of cardboard."
Despite all of the program's efforts, students still didn't seem to grasp the idea well enough to make a jump back into the top 10. It was clear that many students didn't even know that the competition existed.
"I think it's stealing Wrestlemania's swag," said first-year Alex Andrews. "All I know is they didn't advertise it enough because I didn't know about it."
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