USC pitted against Clemson in annual sustainability matchup
For the third year in a row, USC is participating with universities across the nation in an eight-week competition known as RecycleMania to see which school can recycle the most and generate the least amount of waste.
On Wednesday, Sustainable Carolina hosted an event on Davis Field to draw attention to the competition.
"Our mission is twofold; first, we want to make students aware that RecycleMania is going on right now. The second part is to make students aware of what they can recycle here on campus, which will help us for the competition," USC Housing's Coordinator of Environmental Sustainability Margaret Bounds said.
To attract students, the event had games including an obstacle course of recycling bins, a bottle toss, can stacking and recycling sorting.
At the end of the day, the winners with the highest scores were put into a drawing to receive prizes donated by local vendors. The event also featured free food donated by Salsarita's and Cupcake.
It's all part of an effort to increase the university's standing in the competition — and win against its longtime rival.
"Clemson is our main competition, and they beat us last year, so we're hoping to get them this time around," Bounds said.
RecycleMania runs from Feb. 5 to March 31, and after one week of the competition, USC recycled 1,000 pounds of paper, 36,000 pounds of cardboard and 2,000 pounds of bottles and cans, according to Bounds.
This year, USC's composting is also being recorded, but those numbers aren't yet available.
In an average week, the campus produces around 100,000 pounds of trash.
"Our goal is really to improve from last year," fourth-year marine science student Kristen Lococo said. "We're new to the program, so we just want to move up in our rankings with other schools."
USC currently has the capability of processing a wide range of recyclable products, among them: plastic bottles, jugs and jars; just about any kind of paper, including magazines, newspapers, phone books and paperback books; and both corrugated and paper cardboard.