Mania has hit the Tempe campus — ASU is one of 510 colleges and universities to participate in the 2009 RecycleMania competition.

The eighth-annual RecycleMania, which is run by the National Recycling Coalition, started Jan. 18 and ends March 28.

Schools compete to recycle the most materials in 10 weeks, and the results are updated weekly, said project assistant Andres Perez-Charneco.

“It definitely gets students excited,” he said. “Campuses have a naturally competitive spirit — you can tap into that and energize other segments of the campus that aren’t usually associated with green activities.”

Perez-Charneco said the competition focuses not only on helping the environment through recycling, but also on initiating discussions.

“It’s about creating a nationwide conversation about waste minimalization and recycling,” he said. “The Web site has a nationwide forum where participants can exchange ideas about what works and what doesn’t.”

Perez-Charneco said ASU is part of the Benchmark Division, which allows schools to compare themselves with other schools without being officially ranked.

“A lot of schools have set their own internal goals,” he said.

Although the winning school doesn’t receive a monetary prize, the biggest incentive to participate is helping the environment and bragging rights for sustainability, Perez-Charneco said.

“It’s more mainstream now for a school to be green and sustainable,” he said. “The school wins a trophy made out of recycled materials.”

Dawn Ratcliffe, ASU’s recycling coordinator, said she signed the Tempe campus up for RecycleMania after she learned about the challenge through recycling conferences.

“It’s good to have a competition that brings out the best in people,” she said. “Next year it’ll be a lot easier to participate and get involvement because the main programs on campus will have already been established.”

Ratcliffe said she’s working on getting more recycle bins for the campus, especially for inside the academic buildings.

“Because of the budget cuts, we have to look for corporate grants to get more bins,” she said. “Hopefully by next year we’ll have enough where we can have better involvement.”

Recycling Gurus, who are part of the Undergraduate Student Government’s Green Team, are helping to spread the word of recycling throughout the residence halls, Ratcliffe said.

“They’re able to track what’s happening in the halls and promote recycling,” she said. “They have been a huge factor in making the residence halls programs more of a success.”

Andrew Latimer, a mechanical engineering and sustainability freshman and Recycling Guru, said being involved in RecycleMania is an important step in the right direction.

“Since we just started a new recycling program this year, and one of the greatest challenges so far has been awareness and education, participating in this competition will hopefully give the recycling program a boost to develop further,” he said.

Many students, faculty and staff are unaware of what can and can’t be recycled, Latimer said.

“Some still don’t even know where the nearest recycling locations are on campus, so hopefully we can remedy this situation,” he said.

Latimer said the Recycling Gurus plan on promoting recycling by having signage materials up within two weeks.

Since the recycling program is so new and is still being “trouble-shooted,” Latimer said he thinks ASU will struggle during this year’s RecycleMania.

“Once the program is established, the strong student support in the past suggests that we will do very well, but that might have to wait until next year.”

Chris James, business sustainability senior and USG’s campus environment director, said the Green Team is trying to help recycling efficiency become almost second nature to students and faculty.

“Recently, the USG Campus Environment Department purchased 10 new permanent recycling bins that have been placed in high-traffic areas around campus,” James said. “We also won a grant recently that provided us with 30 collapsible, specials-events recycling bins that can be used at many events around campus.”

He said RecycleMania is an excellent opportunity to provide dedicated recycling, as well as recycling education.

“It is important that the first steps we take involve demonstrating to the student population why recycling issues affect them, and how they can benefit from a cleaner and greener campus,” James said.

Reach the reporter at charlsy.panzino@asu.edu.