Registration & Logging in to Account
Registration generally opens in September for the coming year.
Yes. Any post-secondary institution may participate regardless of their location.
Schools must include weight data from their entire institution to be included in the officially ranked competition. Schools may participate with just a subset of campus that you define, however they will only be able to informally benchmark against other schools and will not be included in the formal competition ranking. Schools participating with a subset of campus will need to provide the population for that area.
ReTRAC Connect is an online waste and recycling data management system developed by Emerge Knowledge, an official partner of Campus Race to Zero Waste. All competition registration and data reporting is conducted through the ReTRAC Connect system. For more information about Emerge Knowledge or ReTRAC Connect, visit http://www.emergeknowledge.com/re-trac/.
When registering for the competition, if you are new to the competition or your campus hasn't participated in a few years, please contact CR2ZW@nwf.org. It's strongly encouraged for campuses to have only one account in ReTRAC to ensure all data from past competitions is in one place and accessible. Campuses are also encouraged to use a program or department email address to open the account in ReTRAC, for example sustainability@campus.edu. Using individual faculty/staff/student email addresses requires constant updating each year if main contacts are no longer involved in the competition.
After creating an account on the ReTRAC system you must activate your account using a link shown in the automated message sent to your email address. If you did not receive the activation email it may have been caught in a junkmail filter or the address was incorrectly entered on the account form. If you are unable to locate the account email message, contact the Campus Race to Zero Waste team for assistance.
Tracking and Reporting
You will need to login to your ReTRAC Connect account using the email address and password you designated when first registering the school. From your login account you will open and complete either the form for the appropriate week (traditional 8 week categories) or the one-time reporting form for one of the special categories.
For the Zero Waste, Food Organics, Diversion, and Per Capita Recycling categories, schools are expected to submit recycling and other relevant weight data every week throughout the competition. Coordinators should submit their report between Monday and mid-day Wednesday for the recycling material collected the previous week. These weights are incorporated into the updated cumulative results updated each Friday in the Scoreboard section of the website. This pattern repeats itself each week through the end of the competition.
Example:
- Week 1: Track amount of materials collected. No reporting during week 1
- Week 2:
- Report week 1 weights by Wednesday afternoon
- Rankings posted online for week 1 data on Friday
- Track amount weights for material collected for week 2
- Week 3:
- Report week 2 weights by Wednesday afternoon
- Rankings posted online for week 1 + 2 data posted on Friday
- Track amount weights for material collected for week 3
Race to Zero Waste - One Building Challenge: Schools fill out form at the end of the 1 month tracking period. Results are displayed in April along with the overall competition.
GameDay Basketball: Schools fill out special form after the designated game, Results are displayed in April along with the overall competition.
Electronics: Schools fill out form at the end of the 30 day collection period. Results are displayed in April along with the overall competition.
Yes, but your school may be limited to informally comparing itself against other schools outside of the official rankings. Schools may still participate in the formal rankings using volume-to-weight estimates assuming they are still able to accurately measure volume quantities of material and use approved conversion factors. For more information, read the section on Tracking Standards in the Rules.
Competition Division schools are expected to submit weight data consistently for every week in which material is collected from campus. If no collections take place, then simply enter zeros for materials on the Weekly Reporting form for the given week.
Yes, as long as the grease is being “recycled” in some form.
When estimating material weights based on volume measurements, schools should ideally use conversion formulas based on multiple weight samples taken of their own locally generated material. If this is not possible, schools can use generic volume-to-weight conversion formulas published by the US EPA. IMPORTANT: Schools have a good faith responsibility to report numbers they believe to be accurate. Each local waste stream has unique characteristics that may cause them to weigh different from other locations. For this reason, generic formulas from the US EPA, a local waste hauler or other sources may not closely match the actual weight of material on a particular campus. Coordinators have an obligation to apply their judgement if they think the formulas they use differ significantly from the actual weight of their recycling or trash streams. When in doubt, contact us (email CR2ZW@nwf.org) for advice about your situation.
Even if you are waiting and do not have the actual weight data for a given week, schools are expected to submit a placeholding estimate based on a typical week's worth of material. This will allow your school to remain in the weekly results in your approximate ranking position. At the end of the competition schools will have a week long period when they can access reporting forms for all previous weeks to revise these placeholding numbers with the actual weights. Schools wishing to submit revised numbers during the competition period itself can email the Helpline to make these changes.
Yes, the school can participate in categories that track combined recyclable materials, Diversion and Per Capita Recycling. There is a space on the weekly reporting form to enter co-mingled material weights.
Results
Results for the traditional 8 week categories are updated each Friday afternoon and presented in the Scoreboard section of the website. Results for one-time reporting categories (GameDay Basketball, Electronics) are posted at the very end of the competition.
Campus Race to Zero Waste Recognition
Because the competition aspect of Campus Race to Zero Waste is secondary to the ultimate purpose of raising awareness about waste reduction, no prizes of value are awarded to winning schools. Participants compete for the “glory” of winning and knowing they are making a difference. Category winners receive electronic badges to post on their websites, and share via social media, email, etc.. All competition participants also receive an electronic-participant badge.
Main 8-week categories: Three schools are recognized per each main category (Diversion, Per Capita Recycling, Food Organics and Zero Waste) according to the Carnegie Classification of Small/Very Small Schools, Medium Schools, and Large/Very Large Schools. All winners receive an electronic badge to use on their websites and in communications.
Special categories: A top school is recognized per each special category (GameDay Basketball Diversion & Per Capita Recycling, Electronics Per Capita Recycling & Total Pounds Recycled, and the Race to Zero Waste-One Building Challenge). All winners receive an electronic badge to use on their websites and in communications.
Case Study category: Four campuses are recognized for the Case Study category, one each for Waste Minimization, Food Waste Reduction, Education and Awareness, and Summary of Waste Reduction Efforts (at least a year time period). All winners receive an electronic badge to use on their websites and in communications.
You may download an Excel spreadsheet with past competition results by clicking on the appropriate year from the Scoreboard section of the website.
Miscellaneous
No. We do not have any role in collecting recyclables or providing services. The program’s purpose is to help raise awareness on campus to encourage students and others to take advantage of the recycling programs organized directly by the college.
Population data for all colleges and universities in the United States is automatically included for those schools participating with their entire campus. Read more about how these numbers are determined. Because these numbers are determined using a standardized counting methodology across all schools, alterations are discouraged in most cases where the numbers diverge by a small percent. If the population appears to be off by a significant margin (over 1,000), there may be an error. Contact us for assistance CR2ZW@nwf.org.
If you still have the previous coordinator’s email and password, use these to login to the account. After logging in, click the link for My Account, from which you can change the email address and other contact information. After this, logout of the account and bring up the log-in page again. Use the “Forgot Password” function to substitute your preferred password.
It's strongly encouraged for campuses to use a program or department email address to open the account in ReTRAC, for example sustainability@campus.edu. Using individual faculty/staff/student email addresses requires constant updating each year if main contacts are no longer involved in the competition.
Depends. Campus Race to Zero Waste and RecycleMania are a trademarked programs belonging to the non-profit RecycleMania Steering Committee (“RecycleMania, Inc”) . To simply produce flyer, poster or other forms of signage, no permission is necessary. Participating schools wishing to produce t-shirts, hats or other durable merchandise for non-commercial use may be licensed at no cost by indicating their intention to use it on the registration profile survey. For all other situations, contact us at CR2ZW@nwf.org.