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Chico State beat out hundreds of schools during a national recycling race and placed 35th out of more than 500 universities in RecycleMania's 2009 Grand Champion competition, according to results released Friday.
In California, Chico placed seventh out of 23 competing schools, and second out of 15 in another category.
The competition involved recycling and weighing bottles, cans, papers and cardboard, and totaling waste products to see what campus could conserve the most.
Chico State had its highest marks in the Grand Champion and Waste Minimization competitions, said A.S. Recycling Coordinator Robyn DiFalco.
There are eight categories that schools can choose to compete in.
Placing eighth out of 148 schools, Chico State's best category was waste minimization, DiFalco said. The ranking puts the university in the top fifth percentile.
This is the third year the school has participated in the 10-week campus cleanup competition, she said.
Last year, Chico State's top-ranking category put it in the 30th percentile, DiFalco said.
Since then, A.S. has narrowed its promotional focus on one key audience - dorm residents.
"If we can get them excited about why recycling's important, and the fact that we're participating in the contest, maybe we can get them to be better recyclers," DiFalco said.
This year, A.S. Sustainability and Student Housing created an inner competition between the residence halls, DiFalco said. Whitney Hall won this year's competition.
Whitney won with 3.23 pounds per person, and 1,700 total pounds recycled. Second place went to Lassen Hall, which recycled 2.87 pounds per person.
"Whitney's the only building where we have recycling bins set up in the lobby and on every floor, right next to the garbage bins, in a visible place," she said.
Unfortunately, because the other residence hall buildings are so old, it would be a fire hazard to set up recycling bins on each of the floors, DiFalco said.
But the new residence hall being built next to Whitney has prompted good discussion with University Housing about how to make recycling easier and more convenient for people to recycle.
"One of the things we're looking at doing now is providing a recycling tote bag," DiFalco said. "It's like a big, square bag, with a good handle, that has two compartments, so you can put your paper in one and your cans and bottles in the other."
Both DiFalco and A.S. Recycling Operations Coordinator Eli Goodsell are discussing the idea of providing a free bag to residents next year, which they can place next to their garbage or on their doorknobs and use to recycle their waste more efficiently.
"It's all about convenience," said Goodsell, who was in charge of recording the waste numbers and reporting them every week to RecycleMania. "It'd be really easy to drop already divided paper and recycle stuff into the bins."
Goodsell wants to do a waste characterization study at the residence halls to see if it's worth distributing the recycling bags to residents, he said.
One point learned from RecycleMania is that it's key to conserve, so if the students aren't using a lot of cans and bottles, or recyclable products, the cost of the bags might not be worth it, Goodsell said.
Ultimately, DiFalco is proud of the results this year.
"We nailed them in waste minimization," DiFalco said. "We can really feel proud about that. I'm really bursting at the seams with how exciting it is that we did so well."
Annie Goodman can be reached at agoodman@theorion.com
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