Recycling on university campuses comes with unique challenges. From getting 18-year-olds to recycle in their resident halls, to managing recycling in dining halls and large events, school administrators must implement efficient university recycling strategies. There are budgetary, compliance and public impressions considerations to manage. For example, an ineffective waste management system could lead to overflowing waste bins that visitors can’t help but notice. Keeping campus clean requires a robust recycling program.
University Recycling Strategies: Case Studies
Back in 2001, two teams of students from Ohio University and Miami University started a friendly competition to see whose students could recycle more. The next year, a few more schools joined. It evolved into an annual competition, now called Campus Race to Zero Waste. More than 1,000 schools have participated, and many of their students have used the competition to study and improve their schools’ recycling strategies. Participants can design their own recycling projects and submit reports with their results.
All the cast studies are shared publicly so other schools can benefit from the university recycling strategies. University administrators can get some great ideas from past entries. These are just a few examples of 2024 case studies:
- A team at Macalaster College tested out three different methods to improve accurate waste sorting in residence halls. Their most successful initiative involved delivering individual compost and recycling bins to each student’s room. They also created a waste-sorting sign that told students what to do with items they threw away most frequently, like containers from dining halls. The students who ran the project also organized events like competitions among the dorm floors to see who could correctly sort their waste most consistently, with a pizza party for the winning floor. The project ran over 10 weeks, during which the participating dorm floors doubled their accuracy rates for waste sorting. (Read their report here.)
- At the University of Virginia, every home football game and some basketball games are “Green Games.” Teams of volunteers are on-site during games, stationed near waste bins to help people accurately sort trash from compostable items. After the game ends, the volunteers collect any compostable waste from food vendors and collect/sort the trash that fans have left behind at their seats. The school partners with a composting vendor to pick up everything they collect. During the 2023 fall football season, 83 volunteers diverted almost 63,000 pounds of organic waste from landfills. (Read their report here.)
- Kent State revolutionized the way it manages organic waste by installing two Grind2Energy systems on campus. These machines grind up food scraps, including bones, then mix the ground material with water and store it in a tank. When the tank is full, a vendor pumps the slurry out and takes it to an anaerobic digestion facility. Between June 2023 and June 2024, Kent State diverted 136.8 tons of food waste from landfills using these systems. Workers at the dining facilities collect food scraps in bins throughout their shifts, and food waste that comes back on diners’ plates is also scraped into bins. All the bins are then transported to the grinders at the end of the day. (Read their report here.)
University Recycling Strategies: Key Priorities
- Sorting solutions and recycling projects that students will buy into. Getting more college kids to recycle correctly is possible. Many successful Campus Race to Zero Waste projects have proven that over the years. But universities need to do more than just provide waste bins. Engaging students to organize and champion recycling campaigns in their own dorms is probably going to be more effective than anything school administrators can do, for example. University recycling programs may also partner with fraternities/sororities and other student groups. Coordinating new campus recycling initiatives could be a good opportunity for student groups that have a focus on community service.
- Efficient plans for managing materials that are subject to waste bans. Universities in Massachusetts should already be compliant with MassDEP’s organic waste ban, which requires diversion (not landfilling) of things like food scraps and landscaping waste. Cardboard, other recyclable paper products, textiles, and mattresses are also banned from the trash.
Coordinating the collection and pick-up of all these materials, both from residence halls and campus buildings, requires a lot of logistical strategy. The best way to ensure the university maintains compliance with waste bans, without overspending on recycling services, is to bring your recycling provider to campus for a tour. Every school is unique and every building within your school needs its own recycling plan. Walking through buildings and learning how students and staff use the space is key for designing an efficient system to capture the school’s recyclable waste. It’s a good opportunity to make sure the school has efficient strategies in place for disposing of mattresses, hazardous materials from science buildings, and other hard-to-manage waste that universities tend to have a lot of. If the university needs better strategies for securely disposing of electronics, that can also be addressed at this time.
- Recycling plans for large events and end-of-semester move-outs. Sporting events, parents’ weekends, concerts, graduations, and other large events should be prime targets for university recycling efforts. Student employees/staff can work these events to collect recyclable materials that are discarded. (E.g., picking up recyclable plastic waste left in stadiums after big events, or collecting anything recyclable that students want to get rid of when they’re moving out of dorms.) Coordinating the placement and emptying of trash and recycling containers is also an important part of big events. People can’t put their recyclables into a bin that’s already overflowing with stuff. Bringing in roll-off containers ahead of move-outs and other large events may be recommended.
We’re Here to Help Implement University Recycling Strategies
Miller Recycling can help your university achieve its recycling goals, minimize its recycling costs, and keep campus looking clean. We know that universities have different needs than businesses, so university recycling strategies need to be different. Let’s talk about specific ways to improve your recycling efforts in dorms, dining halls, event spaces, and more. Contact me today!