The GameDay Recycling Challenge, or GDRC, which engages hundreds of thousands of collegiate football fans in a waste reduction and recycling competition every fall, has announced its 2016 national winners, and LSU has placed first in the nation 鈥� for the second year in a row 鈥� with 78,200 lbs. recycled. The other winners were Ohio University and Eastern Washington in a tie in the diversion rate category (recycling/organics recovery as percent of total trash) with 95.6 percent.
鈥淟SU receiving back-to-back EPA GameDay Challenge awards can be directly attributed to the efforts of Campus Sustainability and our students, faculty and staff to become a leader among its peers in higher education sustainability and recycling,鈥� said Tammy Millican, executive director for facility and property oversight.
The competition pitted 78 colleges and universities against each other in a fun and friendly way with the goal of engaging fans to reduce their game-day waste, while composting and recycling more. Over the course of 243 games, 78 schools recycled, composted or donated 2,667,845 pounds of materials. This is a 4.8 percent increase over the total pounds recycled during the 2015 season.
Participating schools are ranked based on the quantity of recyclables, food organics and other materials diverted from the landfill at college football stadiums and tailgating areas. During the competition, schools tracked weights for individual games, with the totals used to rank schools nationally and by athletic conferences.
鈥淲inning this nationwide challenge two years in a row tells me that we are doing something right in diverting more waste from the landfill during our football games. This second-year win is also so encouraging for our overall sustainability program, and to the students, faculty and staff who are committed to making LSU a greener university,鈥� Sarah Temple, campus sustainability manager.
The complete list of national and conference winners is available on the GDRC website at .
The GameDay Recycling Challenge is produced through a partnership of the College and University Recycling Coalition, or CURC; EPA Waste Wise; Keep America Beautiful; and RecycleMania Inc.
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