Turn That Trash Into Treasured Gold!

by Danielle Cotter

…Or at least into a golden “A” for your dormitory or on-campus house. That’s right, it’s preliminary grading time for Recyclemania, and it’s time for you to start stepping up your recycling game!

Over the course of the next two weeks, Tufts Recycles! interns will be coming through each dorm and campus house to do the preliminary grading for this national competition, which takes place in the spring. Don’t be alarmed if you see students “digging through your trash”–we’re not judging you for the plethora of Pizza Days boxes! Instead, we’ll be looking at what percent of your trash is made up of things that actually should be recycled, such as plastic/glass bottles, aluminum foil, and PAPER–please recycle paper, that’s what those blue bins are for! We’ll also be checking out your recycling bins to make sure that contaminants aren’t ending up in there; things such as pizza boxes unfortunately cannot be recycled and must be trashed instead.

It’s important that every dorm and campus house put its best foot forward so we can show the rest of the nation that recycling is one of Tufts’ priorities! For a bit of history, in 2010 Tufts ranked 56th out of 267 participating colleges and universities nationwide. And one year earlier in 2009, Tufts placed 38th out of 206 colleges and universities. If we all take a bit more care to make sure that waste ends up in the right receptacle, I’m sure we can beat our previous record. Let’s go, Jumbos!