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RecycleMania is a friendly competition among college and university recycling programs in the United States that provides the campus community with a fun, proactive activity in waste reduction. Over an 8-week period, campuses 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.
Elon has participated in RecycleMania since 2007. In the 2010 competition, Elon collected over 42 tons of recyclables placing 200th out of all 501 participating schools. Elon’s per capita recycling rate was over 14 lbs per person cumulative, which placed Elon 1st among Southern Conference schools and 5th in the state of North Carolina.
During RecycleMania, Elon holds its own Resident Area Competition to determine which area can recycle the most per capita. West Area won this competition in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, The Oaks won by a small margin in what was a close competition. The 2010 competition was the closest competition held to date with only 0.60 lbs separating 1st from 2nd place. The Loy Center took 1st place with over 2,000 lbs. Collectively, the areas captured over 17,000 lbs of recyclables. The winner in 2011 was Colonnades with 7.76 pounds per person. In 2012, West Area won collecting 1176 pounds of recyclables.
POWERless is an energy competition among the residence halls to increase energy conservation awareness. Students compete to reduce the energy use in their building, based on baseline power consumption. The winner is the building with the largest percentage energy reduction over the course of the competition.
Elon's 9th POWERless competition started February 26. Over 60 residence halls making up 7 residential areas are participating.
Click here for results from the Spring 2013 competition!
Many of Elon’s residence halls are connected to a web-based system, called Building Dashboard, where students can monitor their energy usage in real-time. They can also compare their building’s energy usage to a rival building’s usage.
POWERless took place for the first time in the spring of 2008. The overall reduction during the competition was 111,762 kWh, compared to the baseline consumption. The building winner was Loy G, H & I with 23.8% reduction. The residential area winner was the Loy Center with 15.1% reduction.
This successful first competition, led to POWERless being a regular event on campus, which is now held each semester. Visit the POWERless web site to learn more about the competition and to view the results from previous competitions.