Rinse, Recycle, Repeat

Approximately 55% of 220,000,00 tons of waste generated each year in the U.S. ends up in one of the over 3,500 landfills.

In order to reduce their environmental footprint, The University of Sioux Falls faculty and students are participating in Garnier’s “Rinse, Recycle, Repeat” challenge that takes place throughout the month of April.

“USF is competing with 49 other student bodies across the nation. It’s powered through dosomething.org, Garnier Fructis the hair company, as well as TerraCycle, which is a recycling company that will send our recycles too,” says Allie Thiesse, the chosen representative of USF in the competition.

USF is competing for beauty products that include shampoo and conditioner, eye shadow, deodorant, and other recyclables. The recycling bins are located in every residence hall on campus.

Winning the competition means that USF will receive a “Green Space.”

“We send in the recyclables from our campus and TerraCycle breaks them down into things like garbage cans, benches and stuff like that,” Thiesse says.

Although the competition is between the universities nationwide, USF halls are also competing to see who can collect the most recyclables amongst each other.

“Currently Collier Baker is in the lead and then staff and faculty and Grand Island Hall are next,” Thiesse says.

Currently 556 empties have been collected, and USF is currently holding second place for the third straight week. This week will be the last week of the competition.

Story by Elizabeth Sanchez & Grant Sweeter