Greek students encourage recycling with a two-month competition
In an effort to encourage green and environmentally friendly living, members of the University of Idaho’s Greek community are participating in a a recycling competition ran through the Sustainability Center.
According to ASUI Communications Board Chair Alysha Van Zante, with so many members in each Greek house, and the amount of houses themselves, she expects recycling efforts to increase dramatically over the course of the competition.
The point of the annual Greek Recycling Competition, which runs from Feb. 16 to April 17, is to bring awareness to consumption and waste, said Van Zante, former Sustainability director and current head of Greek recycling.
The competition is open to any Greek house that wants to participate, and there is the incentive of a cash prize to whichever house can recycle the most amount of waste. The first prize is $300, second prize is $200 and third prize is $100. In years past, however, there have been different prizes — $500, $300, and $100 in 2013 — and in the future the competition may get away from cash prizes altogether, according to Mckayla Smith, ASUI Director of Sustainability.
Last year, the 1st place prize went to Kappa Alpha Theta. It is unclear at this point which chapter may take the prize this year, but Smith said the Sustainability Center expects similar involvement as in past years.
Smith said current involvement is limited, but she expects participation to pick up as the competition progresses. According to Van Zante, many houses often wait until the very end of the competition to submit the proof of their efforts, making it difficult to tell early on who might win.
In order for a chapter to prove its involvement, each house must gather its own recycling and take it to the Moscow Recycling Center, where a Greek representative will receive a receipt indicating the weight of the deposit, said Smith. Either throughout the competition or at the end, all receipts are turned in and added up. Whoever has contributed the most recycling to the center by April 17 wins the designated prizes, Smith said.
The competition has continued for more than four years, Van Zante said. It used to include the residence halls, but became too much of a hassle to depict the contribution of each individual hall, so it now only includes the Greek houses. All residents, however, are equally encouraged to recycle as much as possible, Smith said.
Smith said the point of the competition is not to just encourage recycling for a prize, but for students to build a habit and encourage those around them to recycle as well.
“It’s good to be aware of your house’s consumption,” said Van Zante.
Van Zante said recycling saves money, especially in Greek houses because the houses’ dumpsters would have to be emptied less often. When she was in charge of the competition two years ago, Van Zante said she talked to the recycling chairs of each house as well as advertised over Facebook to encourage participation. This year, Smith said she has given flyers to each of the house senators and is also using Facebook to spread the word.
Katrina Hicks can be reached at [email protected]