The University of Southern Mississippi is set to host Recyclethon, a campus-based recycling competition starting Monday, Feb. 24 and running through Friday, March 28.

Sustainability Coordinator Christina Foreman said competitors will work together to create teams of two to five people to compete in the competition. Throughout the event, participants will gather and collect recyclable items from around the campus and bring them to Shoemaker Square every Friday starting Feb. 28. Each item to be weighed and recorded. The individuals who collected the highest weight of recyclable items will be the winning team.
Foreman said there are many benefits to participating in Recyclethon, including improving the environment. The competition encourages everyone to recycle items after using them, rather than throwing them away. Recycling not only benefits Southern Miss, but the entire planet as well. It causes fewer items to be put into the landfill, which results in less pollution.

This competition is also important not only because it will encourage each competitor to continue recycling after the event is over, but also because the weights of each item that is collected will be entered into Recyclemania.
According to www.recyclemaniacs.org, RecycleMania is a national college and university recycling competition. “Southern Miss will be competing with over 400 other schools, so the more weight we can accumulate during Recyclethon, the more competitive we will be in the larger competition,” Foreman said.

According to the university website, the competition will be sponsored by the Office of Sustainability. Foreman said first place team members will each receive a Kindle Fire, and second place team members will receive wireless Bluetooth speakers.