TS
Tanner Seidel
  • General Studies
  • Class of 2014
  • Arkansas City, KS

Tanner Seidel, Arkansas City, Helps Southwestern College Win Award

2014 May 28

The numbers are in and the results are official as the 2014 RecycleMania Tournament draws to a close. Southwestern College competed against 460 other colleges and universities in the annual competition, which leverages campus spirit to increase recycling and waste reduction on campuses across the U.S. and Canada. Participating schools represented more than 5.3 million students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada.

Southwestern College was crowned champions of the 2014 Electronics Recycling "E-cyclemania" competition, a special category of the nationwide RecycleMania competition.

Green Team Southwestern, Discipleship Southwestern, and the Southwestern College men's and women's tennis teams collaborated with the City of Winfield, Grace United Methodist Church, and Vintage Tech LLC to collect electronic items that were ready to be recycled. Businesses and individuals brought items to the event. Vintage Tech LLC collected the items and processes them for recycling.

Tanner Seidel, Arkansas City, assisted with the event.

"It has been a goal of mine to be able to have some kind of electronic waste recycling service," Speegle says. "It is something that is sorely needed. Nowhere in the area is there a place to take obsolete electronics and get them recycled. It is pretty hazardous to throw them in the landfill. We had a great partnership with the City of Winfield and Grace United Methodist Church to make the electronics recycling event happen. Members of Grace, about 25 college students and inmates from the Winfield Correctional Facility volunteered at the event. We collected over 12,400 pounds of material."

The next E-Waste collection event is scheduled for October 14, from 3 - 7 p.m. at Barn #4 of the Winfield Fairgrounds. Speegle says that they are only able to accept electronics during specific collection events.

Colleges and universities competing in the eight-week competition are ranked according to how much recycling, trash and food waste they collect. Between the early-February kickoff and the tournament's final day on March 29, participating schools collectively recycled or composted 89.1 million pounds of recyclables and organic materials, preventing the release of 126,597 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E) into the atmosphere, which is equivalent to preventing annual emissions from 24, 823 cars.

Southwestern students, faculty, and staff competed in several categories, including grand champion, corrugated cardboard, per capita classic, and waste minimization.

Other Kansas schools that participated in RecycleMania were Kansas State University, University of Kansas, Johnson County Community College, and Southwestern College.

Southwestern College is a private institution granting undergraduate and graduate degrees and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. About 1,700 students attend classes at the main Winfield campus, at six professional studies sites in Kansas and Oklahoma, or online around the world.