Rooting For The Green Team

Colleges aren't just going head to head on the gridiron and basketball court any more. Now, the big rivalry may be in garbage.

In late January, more than 400 institutions across the U.S. kicked off a 10-week competition--RecycleMania--to see which of them is the best at recycling and which is doing the most to cut the waste produced on campus. Students tally up the results each week and post them to RecycleMania's Web site for a bit of bragging rights.

RecycleMania is about half over and the scoreboard leader is Kalamazoo College, in Kalamazoo, Mich., which is first in a combined ranking of source reduction and recycling. North Lake College, a community college in Irving, Texas, is tops currently in waste minimization, while the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has recycled the highest gross tonnage of materials so far. There are four additional challenges in recycling by source material. Medical University of South Carolina is the leader in paper, United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., is shipping out the most corrugated cardboard, Rhode Island School of Design is tops in bottles and cans, and Mills College, a school for women only in Oakland, Calif., is socking away the most food service organics.

Updated results are posted every Friday, and you can check them here.