Students living in Kaibab-Huachuca Residence Hall learned recycling goes beyond the bin during an event for Recycle Mania on Thursday.

The event, entitled Sustainability 101, included a presentation by Sarah Herndon, a junior majoring in psychology and sociology. Herndon has presented on sustainability to thousands of students regionally and nationally. After the talk, residents painted terra cotta pots and planted seeds inside them.

This event is one of many programs around campus for Recycle Mania, a competition that pits UA residence halls against each other and the UA against other colleges nationally. Recycle Mania kicked off Jan. 23 and will wrap up on April 2.

Kaibab-Huachuca claimed first place in last year’s competition.

Herndon’s talk began with a rely race allowing residents to come up and brainstorm how various items like pom-poms, mouthwash and duplicate photos can be recycled.

Herndon also helped students to demystify the lingo around going green.

A product only has to be 10 percent sustainable in order to earn a green moniker, Herndon said. She also said she views the most important step as getting educated about what is out there since becoming sustainable can be confusing.

During the presentation, Herndon suggested tips for becoming sustainable and showed photos illustrating consumption around the world. She suggested using media as a way to get people excited about sustainability and showed a clip from the cartoon show “”Rocko’s Modern Life,”” which involved the local dump singing to animated residents about why recycling is important.

Megan Johnson, a Kaibab-Huachuca Hall Council member and freshman majoring in English and art, said she has enjoyed the Recycle Mania programs, citing an event called Recess.

For the Recess event, residents played wall ball and four square while munching on TerraCycle-able foods. TerraCycle refers to snacks such as Oreos, Doritos, or Capri Suns that can be collected and crafted into new items such as bags and office supplies.

Constance McNamara, Eco-Rep  and nutritional sciences freshman, said she enjoyed learning about the process of sustainability and thinks there have been a lot of great ideas throughout the residence halls. One event McNamara said she liked was a bowling tournament with used Coke bottles called Sustain-a-Bowl.

“”For us, I think we’re doing pretty well just doing little things,”” Johnson said. “”It doesn’t have to be huge events.””

Battle of the Utilities results:

Winning Hall: Parker House

Second: Stadium (Navajo-Pinal)

Third: Yuma

Total energy saved (in MMBTUs): 3015

Water consumption saved: 3,132,000 gallons of water