Florida International University
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

RecycleMania is an eight week nationwide benchmarking competition between colleges and universities to increase recycling and promote waste reduction to the campus community. The campaign is a campus wide initiative incorporated with the FIU Recycles program. The Office of University Sustainability holds different events and workshops through out the competition to educate about recycling and increase recycling numbers. The Office of University Sustainability also encourages different offices and departments to host their own RecycleMania events whether it is just in their office or for the whole campus. Supplies and give-a-ways are given to any office who does this. As part of the campaign, a weekly newsletter bulletin with FIU's standings against its state peers is sent out. Since 2012, FIU has competed in the three main divisions; Grand Champion Division, Per Capita Classic, and Gorilla Prize Division.

Give and GoGreen is a waste reduction and charity donation program during the end-of-year move-out coordinated by the Office of University Sustainability and Housing Facilities. During move-out, residents typically generate a lot of waste by discarding items things they no longer need or want even if they are in good condition. Give and GoGreen allows residents to donate these items to charity instead of the items ending up in the landfill. To educate residents about this program, flyers are passed out, there are ads on the TV screens in each resident hall, and resident advisors are engaged. Each resident hall has a clearly marked collection area in the lobby with educational information as well.

Kill-a-watt was an energy competition held between the different dormitory buildings on campus in 2010. The competition was run by the student group IDEAS (Intellectual Decisions on Environmental Awareness Solutions). During the competition, IDEAS held workshops weekly where students could learn simple ways to reduce their energy consumption and win prizes. The competition was held for two months during the Fall semester. The University Apartments won the competition and currently holds the cup.

FIU Game Day Recycling happens during home football games, the FIU GoGreen Team recruits volunteers (students, staff & alumni) to help with recycling at the football tailgates and at the stadium. Volunteers first go through a quick recycling training, and then help set out recycling bins in the tailgate area. After bins have been placed, volunteers walk around and educate the tailgaters about what can be recycled and hand out recycling bags in areas where there are no recycling bins. We call this campaign "Bag it, Tie it, Leave it." Panther fans can bag their recycling, tie it up, and leave it at their tailgate for pickup.

RecycleMania - FIU took top spot out of all the Florida schools in the Gorilla Prize Division in 2013, recycling 628,312 pounds during the competition, up from 250,637 pounds in 2012. The 2013 results showed that the university recycling rates increased in all the following areas: 151% increase in total pounds, 104% increase in recycling diversion rate, and 127% increase in pounds per capita. These increases are due to outreach and education and also from more efficient bin placement and pairing.

Give and GoGreen - This program piloted in 2011 and continues to grow each year. Since program inception more than 60,000 pounds of clothes, household items, and furniture have been donated to local charities. Local organizations include: Miami Rescue Mission, Habitat For Humanity and Goodwill Industries.

Kill-A-Watt - To yield measurable results from Kill-A-Watt, each resident hall's energy consumption was compared to its energy consumption for the prior year during same time period. Over the two months of the competition, the total combined energy savings from all residence halls was valued at $29,758.

FIU Game Day Recycling - Prior to Fall 2011, when the program was initiated, there was no recycling effort in any of the football tailgate areas. Since the program began, the FIU GoGreen Team of volunteers has successfully diverted over 3,500 pounds of recycling that would have ended up in the landfill.

Give & GoGreen pounds are manually weighed by volunteers using a scale.

RecycleMania and Game Day Recycling figures are based on volume to weight conversions using the EPA's conversion chart.