Have you noticed the boxes that collect used papers while you are walking around campus? Have you seen posters emphasizing recycling and savings in the campus center? What’s going on you might ask. Judging from posters and boxes, you probably can guess all of these have to do with saving our environment.

The recycling boxes and posters are part of a grand environmental promotion plan supported by NJIT. Out of all the programs NJIT promotes, Recycle Mania is the most eminent one due to the fact that we are competing with 378 other colleges in the nation over ten weeks.

The goal of this program is to promote recycling habits and green environments through a friendly competition. Ed Newman from Ohio University and Stacy Wheeler from Miami University realized that colleges consume lots of resources and spit out an enormous amount of waste. In order to promote conservation, they decided to come up with a campaign to endorse recycling among college students.

They thought the best way to do this would be through inciting competitiveness. Both figured that competitions among colleges would motivate students to recycle more resources and conserve energies.

The outcome was successful. When Ohio University and Miami University first hosted the competition for ten weeks in 2001, the number of recycled resources dramatically increased in both colleges. After witnessing the success of these two schools, other schools also jointed the competition, and since then Recycle Mania has grown rapidly.

A program that started with two schools now encompasses 596 schools around the nation. NJIT entered this competition in spring 2008 and has shown improvement since. The good news is that in terms of bottles and cans we have collected, we placed 46 out of 210 schools, and in the top 22% last year. But we have not done as well in other sections.

Yet there has been an incremental increase in the number of items we recycled in 2009 compared to 2008. Aside from competitions among schools, there is also an event called the Residence vs. Commuters competition, where each dorm competes with the commuters to recycle the most. Last year Redwood took first place and Oak second. More statistics about the competition can be found at http://www.recyclemania.org.

Beside Recycle Mania, there are other events that NJIT hosts to promote going green. Collecting used shoes for the charity organization Soles4Souls, recycling used books through Better World Books, and sending used cell phones to women’s shelters are among these events.

It is easy to find the boxes for collecting these items in campus center. In fact, there is a spot in front of GDS where many recycling boxes can be found. Another successful event hosted by Residence Life last Spring was “ Do it in the Dark”. The idea was for each dorm to reduce the amount of electricity students would use, which lasted from March 23 to April 19. After a month long competition, Cypress Hall took first place.

Through this program, NJIT reduced its energy usage by 2.32%, which is roughly equivalent to 6106 total kWh. If we convert this to dollars, we have saved $855. Moreover, NJIT also presented environmental films such as “No Impact Man”, “An Inconvenient Truth “ and “Eleventh Hours” during Earth Day on April 2nd. Also, on April 22, NJIT invited vendors that sell green products to come to campus for a Green Festival.

Encouraged by the success of previous events, NJIT is planning to host these events again. Maude Barlow, the chairman of Food and Water Watch of Washington will visit NJIT on March 10th to talk about global water shortages. In addition to that, there will be another movie presentation and Green Festival around April 2nd. “Do it in the Dark” is also scheduled to start in March.
As Campus Center Director and one of the overseers of NJIT’s green environment program, Donna Minnich encourages students to get involved, “I think it’s important for everyone to realize that one person can make a difference”.