This Wednesday is a red Wednesday, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night. They do not belong on the sidewalk after tomorrow night.

Also, look for winners of the Sierra Club Falls of the James group’s 2012 Recycling Breakthrough contest to appear at the RVA Environmental Film Festival this weekend (it’s free to attend!).

In other local recycling news, VCU continues has begun to compete in RecycleMania. From Commonwealth Times article:

Competing to collect the most trash isn’t your typical varsity sport, but VCU has entered a nationwide competition to compare collected recyclables to the national average during the RecycleMania challenge this Spring.

In a 10-week competition, VCU and an estimated 630 schools will be racing to collect the largest amount of recyclables, least amount of trash and highest recycling per capita. The competition is set up similar to basketball brackets and continues weekly elimination rounds until one school is left. This is the second year of the RecycleMania competition. Winners of the competition ultimately receive bragging rights among university rivals, but can also win a recyclable trophy: a bowling pin made to appear like a tin man for the Waste Minimization Trophy.

Stephen Heinitz, the recycling and reuse coordinator for the Department of Environmental Conservation at VCU, said RecycleMania is “a way to educate the students, faculty and staff about recycling.”

Heinitz said he is committed to educating and empowering people about their contribution to recycling. He wants to give every person at VCU the opportunity to recycle along with educating them on why it is important.

“We are an education institution and we want to give everyone the opportunity to develop good recycling habits. If you want change, then make change,” he said.

That change is already taking place. According to the VCU Department of Environmental Conservation, the university community recycled 507 tons of paper, 266 tons of cardboard, 132 tons of scrap metal, 37 tons of computers and electronics in 2009 alone.

Junior English major Angelica Kennedy thinks the programs will motivate VCU to recycle even more. “I think (RecycleMania is) a fabulous thing because hopefully it will inspire people to not only recycle when they’re out and about, but also when they’re at home.”

In still other recycling news, New York and New Jersey law enforcement are buzzing from late last month when dozens of organized crime figures from the New York area were arrested following an investigation of extortion of local garbage haulers.

From Reuters article:

Many of those arrested are suspected members or associates of the Gambino, Genovese and Luchese organized crime families, three of the five largest Mafia factions in the New York area, according to a federal indictment.

Thirty suspects in New York and New Jersey were taken into custody, the FBI said. Twelve of the suspects, including Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco, who authorities say is a reputed Genovese family associate, are charged with racketeering and conspiracy charges.

Franco is accused of extortion, loan sharking and other crimes.

Many of those charged Wednesday are accused of acting as a silent partner in a licensed garbage hauling business after either being banned from the industry following prior convictions or being unlikely to be approved for waste management licenses due to alleged ties to organized crime.