UW–Platteville has been named Grand Champion of Wisconsin in the RecycleMania competition, an eight-week period across the world.

UWP placed 50th out of 605 schools in the overall national Grand Champion competition.

RecycleMania, a friendly competition to promote waste reduction, began Feb. 5 and ended March 31. During the eight weeks, data was collected and compared from last years RecycleMania data to determine exactly how much material had been recycled over the eight weeks.

“Each year we are getting more aware about good recycling habits with the help of RecycleMania,” said Andrea Winkler, RecycleMania coordinator.

RecycleMania was started in 2001 between two universities to get students to start recycling more. The competition expanded to other universities, and by 2011, the event had grown to 630 participating schools in the U.S. and Canada. More than 7.5 million students and staff participated in 2011, weighing in with 91 million pounds of material that was recycled. This year, 92 million pounds of recyclables and organic materials were recycled during RecycleMania.

Fifteen Wisconsin colleges participated in RecycleMania. Other contests in the event targeted such recycling materials as paper, cardboard, and bottles and cans. UW–Platteville placed first in the state competition for the largest cumulative recycling of paper and cardboard per person, and second for the recycling of bottles and cans per person.

The competition also extended to the residence halls, where they competed against other halls on campus to see which hall could recycle the most material. Melcher Hall was named the champion for the residence hall competition for the second consecutive contest.