Students, faculty and staff can help CNM go for gold this year by making a concerted effort to separate your recyclables from your garbage.

CNM Goes for Green in RecycleMania!

Get ready to ramp up your recycling efforts as CNM participates in a national competition while educating community on the importance of recycling and sustainability.
January 30, 2019

Every spring since 2014, CNM has participated in RecycleMania, a competition between colleges in the United states and Canada that promotes waste reduction and recycling programs. 

Last year, CNM won first-place in the case-study competition for waste minimization. This year, CNM will participate in the case study competition again as well as enter into the “Diversion” competition category. Starting on Feb. 4, the college will begin collecting data for RecycleMania. The award for the diversion competition will go to the school with the highest waste diversion percentage.

According to RecycleMania, diversion is determined by the percentage of the total weight of recyclables and food organics diverted from total waste generated.

For eight weeks, CNM’s Physical Plant Department will receive data collected by Waste Management on the volume of recyclables verses the volume of trash on all campuses.

Help CNM Win!

Students, faculty and staff can help CNM go for gold this year by making a concerted effort to separate your recyclables from your garbage and to dispose of your waste in the proper bins.

Campus as a Living Lab and Sustainability Project Manager Molly Blumhoefer says many items that seem recyclable are often not. For example, paper towels, wax-lined coffee cups and chip bags are not recyclable materials.

“When in doubt, look for the recycle symbol on the packaging,” Molly said.

Items that are recyclable include:

  • Clean Plastic (be sure to dispose of any food and drink remnants before tossing in a bin)
  • Tin and aluminum (soup cans, soda cans, etc.)
  • Cardboard (grease-stained pizza boxes cannot be recycled)
  • Paper (This does not include laminated paper products)

 

The Big Finale

On March 21, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Smith Brasher Hall, CNM’s Sustainability Curriculum Committee will host an educational event where experts will give talks on the economic, social and environmental impact issues related to recycling. Waste management will be on site assisting students with a live audit of our recycling stream to determine the real contamination rate from Westside, Montoya and Main Campuses!

All CNM students and employees are invited to the finale at SB. The first 100 students to sign the “Pledge to Refill”, an effort to reduce plastic bottle waste, will receive a free stainless-steel water bottle.