RecycleMania 2018, an eight-week long competition that took place on college and university campus across the nation from Feb. 4 through April 1, led up to Ohio University recycling and composting more than 820,000 pounds of materials that would otherwise been trash.

The annual recycling competition encourages colleges and universities to participate in recycling and composting on their campus, then report their data throughout the eight weeks.

In the Basketball Game Day-Diversion Challenge, OHIO finished first in the nation with a diversion rate of 97 percent.

OHIO finished the national competition with an overall diversion rate of 54.8 percent, a result that placed it first in the MAC and 26th out of 171 schools across the nation.

Overall, the OHIO averaged 103,115 pounds of recycling and composting per week, exceeding its pre-competition goal of 100,000 pounds per week.

“Though we had other needs throughout the competition that did not permit us to host as many RecycleMania events as in past years, we still exceeded our goals,” said OHIO Recycling and Refuse Manager Andrew Ladd. “This just shows how amazing the Bobcat community is.”

For more information about RecycleMania 2018, visit https://recyclemania.org/