Take THAT, Yale

“Harvard,” says a crew cut-sporting Yale student, “We’re gonna recycle your mom, and your grandma, and your children. Booyah. And we’re gonna save your grandpa. For later.”

It’s Feb. 1 in Yale’s Beinecke Plaza, and Yalies are taking turns filming a poorly edited video, dubbed a “Taunt,” that now sits on the Web site for the Yale Student Taskforce for Environmental Partnership.

It’s understandable that Yalies would go to such lengths to taunt fair Harvard. Since last May, they’ve had yet another insecurity to compensate for: in the 2006 RecycleMania, a nationwide intercollegiate waste reduction competition, Harvard trounced Yale in five of six recycling categories.

Now, five weeks into the 2007 recycling competition, Yale trails us once again. This year, RecycleMania offers eight categories, and Harvard leads in six. But despite our stellar performance so far, the competition won’t come to a close until Apr. 7.

Meredith M. Lanoue ’06-’07, a Resource Efficiency Program captain, offers some good tips on maintaining our lead, advising us to recycle the remains of last night’s rager: “Solo cups,” she says. “They’re something that’s really huge.”

The dining hall offers Harvard students another opportunity to pull ahead in RecycleMania. “We have recycling for all our cardboard, all our metal cans, all our glasses and recyclable materials,” says HUDS Director for Marketing and Communications Crista Martin. According to Martin, students should try to minimize waste by choosing reasonable portions: “We provide lots of sizes of dishes in the dining area. So...you can get a small dish...and come back for more.”

While it’s easy to credit Harvard’s recycling success against its New Havenite rival to superior resources, it’s also easy to understand why Yalies might make for poor opponents. After all, they live in a dump.