It’s official! Cal State San Marcos has won the national RecycleMania contest for the fourth consecutive year, topping more than 400 other colleges and universities.

“We squeaked it out in the final week finishing with a recycling rate of 75.69 percent just ahead of Naropa University’s 75.52 percent and third place Rutgers University’s 63.47 percent. That earns CSUSM the 2008 Grand Champion designation,” reports Carl Hanson, who spearheads the campus’ recycling campaign.
 
Hanson said CSUSM also won in the Per Capita Classic, which measures the amount (weight) of acceptable recyclables per person within the designated campus community. Cal State San Marcos won this contest for the first time with a chart topping 76.15 lbs. per person, followed by Rutgers at 71.29 lbs. and Miami (Ohio) at 70.69 lbs.
 
As if this weren’t already enough, CSUSM also took first place in the two Targeted Materials categories: cardboard and mixed paper.
 
There was a change in the overall competition this year, said Hanson. With more than 400 colleges and universities vying for the prize, RecycleMania divided the contest into two divisions: complete campus and partial campus.

“Since, we do not include University Village waste numbers, we competed in the partial campus division,” he explained. “Still, this division proved to be the toughest with powerhouse schools such as Rutgers, Miami, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, UC Davis and the new kid on the block, Naropa.

“Next year, we may look at going complete campus, but for this year, we still believe that we're the best in the nation.”