NSU’s Recyclemania, hosted by Green Sharks, began on Feb. 5 and lasts until March 31. Recyclemania is a competition between colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada, with the ultimate goal of improving waste management and recycling on campus. With just over a week remaining in the competition, students, staff and faculty can still participate to help NSU’s ranking in the competition.
According to Alexis Good, president of Green Sharks,, NSU’s participation has ranked almost last in past years.
“We have a greater amount of recycling, probably just because the student population has gone up, but our percent recycled [compared to the population] has not been as good as it has been in past years,” said Good, about this year’s progress as of March 15.
Green Sharks will still hold events for students to get involved if they have not already done so. There will be a plastic bag drive on March 26 where students will be encouraged to bring in plastic bags rather than throwing them out, so that the club can handle them in an eco-friendly manner.
“You can bring in plastic bags from grocery stores, and we will collect them, measure them and then take them to Publix or Walmart [to recycle them],” said Good. “Students can also bring clear cereal bags, ziploc bags and produce bags.”
In addition, there will be a Sustainability 101 lecture on March 28 in DeSantis 3000.
“That’s going to be the [Director of Physical Plant Seth Mangasarian] talking about what kind of sustainable initiatives we have on campus and what they’re doing behind the scenes that we don’t know about as students,” explained Good.
All of those in the NSU community are highly encouraged to participate in Recyclemania activities.
Megan Knights, vice president of Green Sharks, said, “Recycling in general is really important. It’s one way that you, personally, can make a difference. If you just avoid throwing one straw in the trash instead of putting it in the recycling, that could save a turtle’s life. That’s what I keep reminding myself everytime I recycle, because I want to save animals, and I want to save our planet.”
For more information, visit Green Shark on NSU’s OrgSync, email NSURecyclemania@gmail.com or go to recyclemania.org.
