Clemson vs. Alabama: Picking a recycling champ

Looking forward to the NCAA Football Championship game tomorrow night? Let’s look at the most important stats: which school is the environmentally superior?

Since Alabama is the reigning champion, we'll start with their stats: Alabama has a combined 36,155 undergrad and graduate students. The last reporting year, they recycled 1,148 tons of “regular recycling” -- paper, cardboard, glass, aluminum, scrap metal and yard waste. That equals 64 pounds of recycling per student.

Alabama collects grease generated on campus, and an outside vendor deals with the oil. If you check the website for recycling and the University of Alabama, there is information about the school's efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle. They have done a pretty good job in keeping the cost of this program to a minimum, and have sold their recyclables to get the most profit to enhance this program.

Clemson University has 20,200 undergrad and graduate students. Their last reporting year, 1,349 tons of recycling, and that’s 134 pounds per student. Right there, winner! Clemson recycles all of the regular stuff, too, and provides convenient recycling stations throughout the campus.

Dave Vandeventer is the Clemson's recycling and sustainability manager, and his website is outstanding. The university's “Solid Green Campaign” encompasses the three “R’s” (reduce, reuse and recycle) and it extends to students, faculty and staff. Vandeventer's office offers public awareness programs, public participation programs and public education programs.

Clemson participates in game day recycling, where student volunteers assist all visitors with the right way to recycle and bags for recycling. They also compete with 600 other universities in RecycleMania, a Keep America Beautiful program.

Two other outstanding offerings are the biodiesel and compost programs that are offered by the university. Food waste from all of the campus eateries is collected and turned into compost which is used throughout the campus as well as sold through their very successful program. The university's biodiesel program collects all of the cooking oil and grease used in campus kitchens. This is turned into fuel used by on-campus diesel trucks.

Last year, Clemson University was recognized by the Carolinas Recycling Association as one of five outstanding and comprehensive programs in the Southeast.

Clemson has stated goals in sustainability -- they plan to be Net-zero in energy use and carbon emissions, and they plan to attack this from many different angles. They use alternative energies. Besides the biodiesel, they are actively engaged in geothermal usage and solar panels. They are building and have built LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified structures boasting of 13 certified, and 8 gold certified buildings. Any future buildings will be silver LEED certified or higher.

The university emphasizes environmentally sound transportation with a bike friendly campus, a bus system, CAT (Clemson Area Transport) with over 1.5 million riders/year, ride sharing, and alternative vehicle usage. Clemson also offers a LEAF program (Leading for our Environment and Future) which offers housing for sustainability-minded students. They are interested and involved in sustainable living, composting, recycling and community gardens. They are learning and living the Clemson sustainability goals.

So in this game, I declare Clemson the winner! Good luck to both teams on Monday.

Nan Kirlin is recycling coordinator for Gaston County. Her Planet Earth column runs on Sundays.