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USI wins annual Alcoa Recyclemania contest

Prize winnings to be donated to Keep Evansville Beautiful

April 22, 2015

Over the past two months, Evansville's three leading institutions for higher education participated with more than 390 colleges and universities in the annual RecycleMania Tournament.

The nationwide contest is managed by Keep America Beautiful, a leading nonprofit that builds and sustains clean, green and beautifully vibrant communities. The Alcoa Foundation is a key sponsor of this program, and Alcoa Warrick Operations sponsored a local version of the competition between the University of Southern Indiana, the University of Evansville and Ivy Tech Community College - Southwest.

The results were announced on Wednesday, April 22, in honor of Earth Day.

"The students and universities participating in RecycleMania continue to drive impactful change by significantly reducing waste in hundreds of communities," said Esra Ozer, president, Alcoa Foundation.  "Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation congratulate this year's winners and participants on their remarkable efforts to promote recycling." 

In total, the contest resulted in 80 million pounds of materials being recycled, preventing the release of 129,411 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. Locally, the three Evansville-based schools reported recycling more than 230,000 pounds of materials. Alcoa Warrick Operations offered a cash prize of $1,500 as an incentive in the intra-city challenge between the local college campuses. 

This year, the University of Southern Indiana (USI) retained its title as champion of the local RecycleMania challenge, posting a per-capita recycling rate of 19.43 percent. Local results were calculated by dividing recycling weights with the full time equivalent (FTE) student and staff population at each school. 

Based on this year's results, USI will retain the "Alcoa Recycling Trophy," created with used aluminum beverage cans. It was created by local artist Bob Zasadny, who also designed the public art that will be installed at the entrance of the Evansville Regional Airport.

As the winner of the annual RecycleMania contest, the University of Southern Indiana has agreed to donate Alcoa's cash prize of $1,500 to Keep Evansville Beautiful, an Evansville affiliate of Keep America Beautiful. The money will be used to enhance recycling at various community events, said Keep Evansville Beautiful Executive Director Julie Welch.

"This donation to KEB will help us provide another incentive to non-profits to recycle," she said.

The prize money will be utilized so recycling bins can be loaned at no cost to non-profit organizations that want to reserve them for public-space events. Normally, Keep Evansville Beautiful charges a nominal fee for the rental of the bins. With the prize proceeds, that fee will be waived, although a deposit will be required.

"It's refreshing to know that so many college students participated in this challenge," Welch said. "We consider this a strong indicator that this generation takes recycling seriously and that they plan to be good stewards of our planet."

USI finished second in the state; eight colleges participated in Indiana. Notre Dame slightly edged out USI in the per capita challenge. Overall, USI was in the top fifth of all participating universities and colleges.

USI President Linda L.M. Bennett recognized faculty, students and staff for helping the university retain this honor. "At USI, our embrace of single-stream recycling has helped to create a campus culture of recycling. We're now happy to help other organizations increase their recycling efforts by donating our prize from Alcoa to Keep Evansville Beautiful."

"An exciting new addition to our USI efforts is a reverse vending machine (RVM) in student housing. It accepts aluminum cans and plastic beverage bottles and gives our students a way to measure the volume and success of their conservation efforts, as well as incentives to participate. We've partnered with the Alcoa Foundation to bring RVM technology to USI, and I'm proud to say that we're the only university in Indiana to have one," said Bennett.

At the University of Evansville, the event is a way to further engage their students in actions that make a difference, according to UE President Thomas A. Kazee.

"At the University of Evansville, we welcomed this opportunity because it highlights the importance for recycling, sustainability, and the impact that individual actions have on our environment," said Kazee.

Ivy Tech Chancellor Jonathan Weinzapfel said: "This was the 15th consecutive year for the national RecycleMania challenge, and we're happy that Ivy Tech Southwest continues to participate in this program and compete with other leading academic institutions."

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