Queen’s has registered again to participate in Recyclemania, an international competition aimed at promoting waste reduction activities on university campuses. And to make the choice to recycle even easier, the Sustainability Office has developed an online tool to help students, staff and faculty to responsibly dispose of a variety of materials on campus.

“We’re always looking for ways to promote our campus recycling programs and resources,” says Llynwen Osborne, Waste Coordinator, Sustainability Office. “Recyclemania gives the Sustainability Office a great platform for measuring the success of the university’s recycling programs and encouraging students, staff and faculty to help us to do better.”

The application allows users can type a waste item into an information box and the Recycling Tips look-up tool tells them how the item should be discarded.

Recyclemania requires participating universities and colleges to record their campus waste and recycling data for eight weeks. The data collected is then ranked to show which school collected the most recyclables, generated the least amount of trash per capita, and has the highest recycling rate. Queen’s placed 56th in last year’s competition with a diversion rate of 41.37 per cent.

The Sustainability Office will be collaborating with a group of student volunteers and representatives from the Alma Mater Society, the Society of Graduate and Professional Students and Main Campus Residents’ Council to promote Recyclemania through a variety of activities. The list includes a “Get Caught Green-Handed” promotion and Greenfest, a showcase of sustainability practices and activities at the university that will take place March 4-8.

More information about Recyclemania