RecycleMania Results: MCCC Ranks Top In PA, 6th In U.S. For Minimizing Waste

Blue Bell/Pottstown, Pa—Montgomery County Community College’s efforts to cut waste over the last decade have propelled it to the top of the score sheet in RecycleMania’s 2015 competition. In the category of waste minimization, MCCC ranked first among higher education institutions in Pennsylvania, fifth among public two-year colleges nationally, and sixth overall among all colleges and universities in the country, making it MCCC’s most successful RecycleMania finish in eight years of competition.

RecycleMania’s Waste Minimization category measures an institution’s total waste—trash and recycling collected during the eight-week competition—and divides it by the number of students, faculty and staff on campus to calculate the amount of waste per person. MCCC collected only 8.395 pounds of waste per capita—almost half of the per capita amount collected in 2014.

“Less waste per capita means that our efforts to educate the campus community about the importance of reducing and reusing, in addition to recycling, are paying off,” said Jaime Garrido, associate vice president for facilities and construction at MCCC. “For example, the College invested in water filling stations that have eliminated more than 108,000 plastic bottles from recycling or waste streams over the past three years—that’s close to 14 miles of plastic bottles!”

In addition to waste minimization, RecycleMania also ranks institutions according to volume and percentage of recycling collected during the competition.

In the Per Capita Classic category, MCCC finished 17th in Pennsylvania, with 1.884 pounds of recycling per capita. This positioned the College as 20th among two-year institutions nationally, and 289th overall.

In the Grand Champion category, MCCC scored a 22.447 percent cumulative recycling rate, positioning it 13th in Pennsylvania, 16th among two-year institutions nationally, and 175th overall.

MCCC collected a cumulative 17,960 pounds of recycling, ranking it 15th in Pennsylvania, 20th among two-year institutions nationally, and 274th overall in the Gorilla Prize category.

RecycleMania is an eight-week nationwide competition, held Feb. 1 through March 28, during which colleges and universities competed to see who could reduce, reuse and recycle the most campus waste. MCCC has participated for eight consecutive years.

Nationally, 390 institutions recycled or composted 80.1 million pounds of materials, preventing the release of 129,411 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E) into the atmosphere. According to the U.S. EPA’s Waste Reduction Model (WARM), MCCC’s recycling efforts during the competition resulted in a greenhouse gas reduction of 33 MTCO2E, which translates to the energy consumption of three households or the emissions of six cars.

MCCC was among the first institutions in the country to sign American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) in 2007. The College’s sustainability efforts are led by a team of faculty, students, administrators, support staff, alumni and community members that comprise the President’s Climate Commitment Advisory Council.

To learn more about MCCC’s Sustainability Initiative, visit its “Think Green” blog at http://www.mc3green.wordpress.com.

To learn more about RecycleMania or to view the full list of results, visit http://www.recyclemaniacs.org.

Diana Nelson Jones’ Walkabout: Pittsburgh Is Tops Again As A Great Home For Big Crop Of Trees

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With the flurry of national press Pittsburgh has been getting, we’d better step up the pace of hotel construction, get our spare bedrooms advertised on AirB&B and send a buzz through the network of couch surfers. We’re sure to get more company in the coming years.

Our little gem of a city has been at or near the top of lists of places to invest in and raise a family and that have the most public art, best housing prices, best cost of living, best view, most breathtaking entry point and best (and maybe most) neighborhoods.

But of all the lists I’ve seen, Pittsburgh’s status in a recent report by National Geographic makes me the proudest.

Of the cities featured in an article headlined “Nine Cities That Love Their Trees,” Pittsburgh was cited as having the greatest canopy among New York, Philadelphia, Austin, Detroit, Washington, Baltimore, Portland and Tampa.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/diana-nelson-jones/2014/04/29/City-is-tops-again-as-a-great-home-for-big-crop-of-trees/stories/201404290060#ixzz30KFQnaue

Once Nearly Extinct, Streetcar Gets New Life In US

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) – When the auto plant here closed, this prosperous Wisconsin port city on Lake Michigan lost more than just its largest employer. Its sense of vitality seemed to drain away, and city leaders set out to find something that would inject life into the brick-storefront downtown while the economy went through a transition.

What they came up with was obsolete: an electric streetcar. Kenosha decided to bring back a relic that once clattered around metropolitan areas in pre-war America but was abandoned on the march to modernity.

More than a decade later, the experiment is now popping up all over. More than 30 cities around the country are planning to build streetcar systems or have done so recently. Dallas, Portland and Seattle all have new streetcar lines. Most projects involve spending millions of dollars to put back something that used to be there – often in the same stretches of pavement.

“It goes along with the revival of inner cities all over America,” said Steve Novick, transportation commissioner in Portland, which has spent more than $250 million to replace the lines the city shut down in 1950. “It’s too bad that they weren’t kept here all along.”

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/home/20131112_ap_043edaa93bec4e16a0a93d2539d71084.html#R3BS9I7CtAX4jqGH.99

30 Years Of Change: A New Direction For Pittsburgh

English: Downtown Pittsburgh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Morphing from steel industry collapse to eds-and-meds rebirth, from a too-gray place that young people flee to one that attracts them as a “green” center of culture and recreation, from a tale of Rust Belt woe to one of urban transformation, it is indisputable that the Pittsburgh region is a far different place than it was 30 years ago.

And by most standards, it would seem to be a far better place as well.

Since 1983, when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a special section chronicling the unique and worrisome issues confronting the region during Depression-level hits to its workforce, Pittsburgh has lost people, corporations, churches, schools and, yes, even a prothonotary.

But it has rebuilt its economy; added museums, theaters and riverfront trails; replaced its sports facilities, airport and convention center; and reinvented the Pittsburgh Downtown as a place to live, while serving the thousands more who commute to it by opening a subway, busways and a highway to the north.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/region/30-years-of-change-a-new-direction-for-pittsburgh-706424/#ixzz2gzxczfUQ

Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center Project – Back On Track

Harrisburg’s Midtown area is undergoing an arts/culture/entertainment renaissance aimed at transforming Midtown into a destination for Central Pennsylvania residents and beyond.  This article gives some great insight on what is to come and details on this important project!

…When done, the $6 million HMAC complex will be an important piece of Midtown’s emerging arts corridor along N. 3rd St., joining two other projects expected to get underway this fall—the $5.5 million Susquehanna Art Museum two blocks north at 3rd and Calder and the Furlow Building, a $5 million apartment house renovation project just up the street…..

To read all about what’s going on in Midtown, click here:

http://www.theburgnews.com/TheBurg-Aug2011-small.pdf

The article is on page 5.  You can scroll down to “HMAC Poised To Step Forward”.  The file is large and takes a minute or so to download.