Recyclemania is a nationwide event that competes with more than 500 colleges in multiple recycling competitions. This year’s event ran from the beginning of February to the end of March.

MSU placed the highest in the category for highest gross tonnage of certain recyclables, finishing fourth out of 365 schools with a total of 1,015,341 pounds recycled. This result exceeded last year’s total of 947,187 pounds and exceeded the goal Smith said they set for the university this year.

“We set our goal a little bit higher than last year, and we exceeded that goal,” he said, adding this year’s goal was 1,000,000 recycled pounds. “Our participation and (the) amount of materials we collected was better.”

MSU also improved in the Grand Champion category, where they increased their recycling rate from 34 percent last year to about 36 percent this year. This was the only category MSU didn’t place first in the Big Ten.

While the event concluded a few weeks ago, Smith said MSU will make its fourth appearance in the competition next year. MSU already is working on what it can do to improve upon this year’s efforts.

“One of the things we really want to focus on next year is recycling things that people are unaware of that they can recycle on campus, such as paper cups,” he said. “Another thing is waste reduction — we can boost that recycling rate by reducing the materials that we are throwing away.”