Loyola Marymount University has won the 2015 RecycleMania Competition’s Per Capita Classic (total pounds of recyclables per person.) LMU recycled 73.9 pounds per student during the competition. During the competition, participating schools recycled or composted 80.1 million pounds of recyclables and organic materials, according to results from the annual program. This year, 394 schools with a total of 4.5 million students, in 49 states and Canada participated in the program.
Overall, Washington’s Antioch University Seattle won the contest, with just 4 percent of the waste generated on campus ending up in the trash, and the other 96 percent being composted or recycled. Recyclemania is annual competition that ranks schools by how much recycling, garbage and food waste they collect in two months. This year, the 3R Actions Challenge was added to the program. The 3R Actions Challenge encourages students to not only to reduce, reuse and recycle but to also share those actions via text, Twitter or a mobile app.
The LMU Hospitality team was lead by Sodexo student employees. The team engaged student employees who actively participated in joint efforts with supply partners like Coca-Cola, where recycling tables were setup around campus to raise awareness and collect cans and bottles.
“We invest time and resources to understand the unique challenges of our partner organizations, which includes improving the performance of communities where we live, work and serve,” said Jason Adams, district manager, Sodexo. “The City of Los Angeles tops the list of the country’s ten largest cities with the highest recycling rate, more than 76 percent. Sodexo’s work at LMU helps encourage and empower students to carry that forward to an end goal of zero waste.”