As campuses across the country shake off their collective Obama hangover, RecycleMania arrives just in time to remind everyone there’s still plenty of work left to be done.

RecycleMania is, to quote their Web site, “a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities.” Essentially, campuses in every part of the nation beef up their recycling programs for a period of ten weeks — Feb. 2 to March 28 — while meticulously weighing and measuring recycled materials and waste before comparing the resulting figures.

This is the first year Aquinas has participated in RecycleMania, which began in 2001 as a neighborly competition between only two schools and has since grown to become a nationwide event. Last year, RecycleMania declared a grand total of 58.6 million pounds recycled by the participating schools in the ten weeks. And participation is simple — merely deposit recyclable materials in the green and blue recycling bins that have been set up around campus.

“We’ve set up the blue and green bins all over campus,” said Jessica Onan, the program director for Aquinas’ Center for Sustainability. “All we can do is market and educate people. The systems are in place, now we just need people to go out there and do it.”

“Get to the bins!” she added.

To help draw attention on campus, the Student Sustainability Committee is planning a RecycleMania kickoff party on Feb. 8 with a band and displays of things that can and can’t be recycled. Yet while RecycleMania is the focus now, Onan sees Aquinas’ participation as a part of a larger long-term goal.

“In September, Ed Balog signed the ACUPCC, the American College and University President Climate Commitment,” said Onan. “It’s basically a commitment that our college will work toward decreasing our energy usage on campus and to set a goal for complete carbon neutrality.”

Hence Aquinas’ participation in RecycleMania. Though Onan hopes competition from local colleges — such as Grand Valley and Kalamazoo College (who was declared RecycleMania Grand Champion in 2008)  — will inspire Aquinas students to participate, she acknowledges that winning isn’t everything.

“Even if we don’t win the competition, it’ll at least raise our recycling weight and awareness as to what people can recycle and what they can’t,” said Onan. “Another goal of RecycleMania is to reduce the amount of trash being generated on campus.”

“Not only through recycling, but also by changing some of your habits.”

“Like using reusable cups instead of paper or Styrofoam ones, or investing in tote bags and bringing those with you to the store instead of using those plastic bags… double-sided printing… I could go on and on.”