On a lighter note...recycling really makes me think!

So this week is RecycleMania at GWU. It is a great oppurtunity to raise awareness of the importance of recycling while at the same time making it fun because it is a competition amongst surrounding schools. It is

"a friendly competition among colleges and universities in the United States that provides participating schools with a fun, proactive opportunity to increase awareness about waste prevention and recycling on their campuses. Over a 10-week period, schools compete in different contests to see which institution can collect the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate. Participating schools are required to report measurements on a weekly basis throughout the competition. Winners in each category will receive trophies and awards, which of course are made of recycled materials!"

If you noticed, in Jst there is a whole corner dedicated to the cause with a showing of how much GWU is recycling compared to UM. Some days we win, some days we lose...so far the scores are 4 weeks Maryland and 4 weeks GWU, so keep on recycling!

I am doing a mini-doc in SMPA 112 on recycling on GWU campus and I have to admitt, we keep a pretty clean campus! However, it IS apparent that often there will be recyclable bottles in a garbage can located right next to a recycling can. Come on people lets not get lazy here!!

But, the real question: Does GWU recycle? can be answered in this 10 minute youtube video:

All of the research and filming I have been doing recently on my project started to make me think. Why do they design objects where half is recyclable and half is not? For instance, a water bottle. In order to recycle a water bottle you would have to take off the cap and throw it in the normal garbage. If you don't, then the bottle is not recyclable. The same goes for yogurt. The tin lid is not recyclable, but the container is. This makes absoluteley NO sense!

Well nevertheless, keep on recycling GWU! And to track how we are doing in Recyclemania,click here!