The Rules
Organizations, groups and individuals who create events on campus relating to waste reduction, reuse or recycling can compete in RecycleMania 2013 in one of three categories:

• Compassionate Cougar – groups with 1-10 members
• Conservation Houstonian – groups with 11-50 members
• Sustainability-Savvy Shasta – residential halls

To register, send an email to uhrecyclemania@gmail.com with the name of the organization, the number of members and whether the organization intends to attend the Q&A/Planning Session on Jan. 18. Only teams that register by Dec. 1 are eligible to participate in the Q&A/Planning Session, but registration will remain open after that date.

Only events that take place after the team has registered will be judged and have points awarded.

Teams must post a notice announcing their activities three days in advance of the event on the Office of Sustainability Facebook Page so that a judge can be scheduled to attend. The announcement must include what the event is, where it will take place and when it will happen.

Weekly point totals will be posted on the Office of Sustainability Facebook page.

The teams with the most points in each category at the end of the competition will be declared the winners.

The competition starts Feb. 2 and ends March 30. Winners will be announced at a party on April 4, with the time and location to be announced later.


Judging Criteria
POINTS FOR CONTENT
Teams will accrue one point for every attendee at their event that invites the campus to engage in any of the following topics:

• comparing the strategies and tradeoffs of recycling, reduce and reuse
• the various options for reuse and recycling
• the environmental, financial and personal costs of recycling, reduction or waste
• how well the public educates themselves on recycling, reduction, reuse
• skills people need to make decisions about recycling, reduction, and reuse in their lives
• dreams for recycling, reuse or reduction in people’s lives or for the University of Houston, and how to realize them

If an event meaningfully engages attendees on a second topic, each attendee will be counted again when determining point totals.

To receive points, teams will be required to turn in sign-in sheets from the events listing the names of those who attended to the Office of Sustainability, Oberholtzer 252A, by 5 p.m. Friday the same week in which the event is held.

Organizations that jointly host events will each receive points based on the total number of participants.

POINTS FOR PLAY
RecycleMania 2013 events will invite the campus to explore eligible topics in playful, engaging or original ways.

Points for playfulness, originality, and degree of engagement will be awarded based on the number of attendees at the event who vote for or against those three criteria, using ballots from reused paper that the Office of Sustainability judge will have available for 10 minutes during the event. The voting will be opened for that 10-minute period.


Why compete?
• Help the University recycle more, waste less, and win the national RecycleMania competition.
• Winner in each competition category receive prizes: Compassionate Cougar – $100 catering gift certificate; Conservation Houstonian – $200 catering gift certificate; Sustainability-Savvy Shasta – $300 catering gift certificate
• Winners will be featured in a press release and weekly Facebook video vignettes sharing their best practices on waste reduction, recycling, and reuse
• Winner of each category receives recruitment/info table at Earth Day*

* Note: organizations or departments that have specific year-long green programs or initiatives are, by definition, eligible to host a table at UH Sustainability Festival.


Why is the campus RecycleMania contest not a recyclables weight contest?
• so that groups of all sizes can compete – large organizations aren’t limited by the amount of waste they can carry to a drop-off location, and small organizations aren’t limited by the amount of waste they generate

• we want to encourage everyday recycling habits – not hauling bags of recycling to distant locations

• to not disrupt the collection schedule that the Plant Operations recycling team follows