Waste Diversion Case Studies
Amherst College
2023 - Amherst implements a campus closed loop system across the annual Move Out / Move In cycle that minimizes waste to the landfill.
Chapman University
2023 - Chapman's “Ditch the Dumpster” program diverts waste from the landfill during the student move-out by offering accessible, one-stop donation stations.
Hope College
2023 - Hope collects clothing items from students and hosts thrift shop, diverting clothes from the landfill.
Kent State University
2023 - Kent State implements a reusable to-go container program, avoiding the generation and disposal of 60,000 containers in one year.
Macalester College
2023 - Macalester collects and redistributes campus swag items, diverting them from landfill.
Pennsylvania State University
2023 - Penn State pilots “Green Basketball Game” initiative that sorts, weighs, and disposes of all waste generated during the game.
Raritan Valley Community College
2023 - Recording and analyzing the recycling trends at RVCC to find tangible solutions to increase recycling and composting campus.
University of Massachusetts Amherst
2023 - New2U move-out collection and move-in sale at UMass Amherst diverts useful items from landfills and keeps them in the hands of students.
University of Pittsburgh
2023 - University of Pittsburgh’s annual Clean & Swap event ensures office, laboratory, and other campus materials find their best next homes.
University of South Florida
2023 - University of South Florida benchmarks to measure outgoing waste, identifying the challenges and opportunities for diversion and reduction.
Valparaiso University
2023 - Valparaiso creates a pilot program in residence halls to see if personal recycling containers help increase the recycling rate.
Carnegie Mellon University
2022 - Fix-it Fair Mending Workshop repairs items and teaches attendees how to mend clothing, resulting in reducing waste by keeping these items out of the landfill.
College of Staten Island
2022 - Promotes recycling on our campus and reduces campus waste by composting dining services pre-consumer waste.
Dallas College
2022 - Focuses on three areas for the 2022 Campus Race to Zero Waste Competition: Student and Public Education, Zero Waste Infrastructure, and E-Waste Events.
Johnson County Community College
2022 - Reduces mixed office waste and surplus from office moves and retirements.
Macalester College
2022 - Fix It All Free For All is an event put on by students that promotes sustainable practices, builds community, and diverts items from landfills.
Salisbury University
2022 - Focuses to reduce the amount of volume entering the landfill from student move-out week.
University of Nebraska Lincoln
2022 - Designs and implements a pilot project focused on standardizing recycling efforts on campus to reduce waste and improve recycling.
Case Western Reserve University
2021 - Aims to reduce waste on campus by offering a free store which received secondhand student donations and allowed other students to shop for free.
Georgia Institute of Technology
2021 - AWARE (Actively Working to Achieve Resource Efficiency) deskside recycling program places reasonability on the individual to increase recycling and reallocate custodial resources.
Kendall College of Art and Design
2021 - Uses the Campus Race to Zero Waste competition to identify gaps and to find solutions to waste stream challenges.
Lehigh University
2021 - Reduces the use of, and waste from, disposable clamshell take out containers on campus through it’s ecocontainer effort.
Macalester College
2021 - Reduces waste and promotes equity by creating a free, environmentally friendly and socially responsible clothing and item exchange program for the student body.
North Carolina State University
2021 - Audits walkway bin systems on campus to determine what type of material is collected within the bins, if increased signage reduces contamination, how solar belly walkway bins compare, and if adding a restricted opening to recycling bins changes contamination rates.
The Ohio State University
2021 - Implements a Zero Waste Drop‐Off Station to provide students living off‐campus with access to free recycling and composting.
U.S. Military Academy at West Point
2021 - Implements a campus‐wide recycling infrastructure and reviews their sustainability education campaign through participation in the CR2ZW competition.
University of California Berkeley
2021 - Makes single-use plastic water bottles only available upon request in the dining halls, in an effort to reduce plastic consumption and waste on campus.
University of South Dakota
2020 - Reducing waste and increasing recycling on game day - engaging fans, students and athletes.
University of Richmond
2020 - Diverting more than 1,500 pounds of soft plastic waste through a campus-wide plastic bag and film recycling program.
University of Ottawa
2020 - Hosting a free store for the uOttawa community to reduce waste and foster a culture of reuse and repurposing.
University of Connecticut
2020 - Students advocate for reducing plastic waste on campus by implementing water bottle refill stations and collaborating with the administration to ensure the University is moving towards a plastic-free future.
Towson University
2020 - Evolution of waste minimization on campus over three years includes rebranding outdated waste signage and ensuring all catered events are “zero-waste” ready.
Georgia Institute of Technology
2020 - Collecting Styrofoam from labs and move-in for recycling.
Georgia Institute of Technology
2020 - Planning and implementing a pilot to collect plastic film.
Macalester College
2020 - SustainaCup is a student-led program that seeks to minimize waste and improve the sustainability of menstrual periods economically and environmentally while also promoting wellness and social justice.
University of Wisconsin – Whitewater
2019 - Would the recycling rates inside Heide Lecture Hall be improved if the small classroom trash and recycling bins were replaced with larger recycling infrastructure located in the hallways?
Georgia Southern University
2019 - Determining recycling habits while trashcans are available in classrooms versus recycling habits while trashcans are not available in classrooms.
North Carolina State University
2019 - A student-driven paper towel composting program for campus residence halls to improve waste diversion and create life-long sustainable knowledge and habits for students.
Rider University
2019 - Using weekly themes and events, we used the RecycleMania competition as a platform to educate the campus community about waste minimization and landfill diversion opportunities.
Cedar Valley College
2019 - How are campus community members contributing to the usage of recyclable materials and how we save and re-utilize those materials.
Raritan Valley Community College
2018 - Studying the recycling habits of RVCC employees, and subsequently providing new recycling bins, signs, and dumpsters.
Zero Waste Case Studies
Harvard University
2023 - Harvard's Zero Waste Project consolidates unmarked bins into zones at campus events to improve diversion rates, reduce contamination, and initiate a discourse on waste.
University of Southern California
2023 - University of Southern California enacts a policy prohibiting single-use plastic beverage bottles from all university events and operations.
Valparaiso University
2023 - Valparaiso takes steps to reduce the number of plastic liners being used in trash and recycling containers.
Food Waste Reduction Case Studies
Cal Poly Humboldt
2023 - Cal Poly Humboldt's Weigh the Waste is an educational program with a goal to achieve food waste reductions in dining halls.
Central Michigan University
2023 - Central Sustainability partnered with CMU Dining to offer food waste education in dining halls by weighing food left on students’ plates.
Endicott College
2023 - Endicott's Show the Waste focuses on food waste reduction by putting “wasteful plates” on display in the main dining hall through a meal period.
Salisbury University
2023 - Salisbury University brings awareness to post-consumer food waste generated at the Commons Dining Hall.
St. Lawrence University
2023 - St. Lawrence develops a toolkit to conduct audits and measure the impact of educational materials on attitudes and understanding of food waste impacts.
Temple University
2023 - Temple's Share Fair, a large-scale high-visibility event, demonstrates the circularity of food on campus and in our urban community.
The Ohio State University
2023 - Ohio State facilitates peer-to-peer engagement, collaborative learning opportunities, and reducing recidivism though campus-wide compost expansion.
University of Pittsburgh
2023 - University of Pittsburgh diverts food waste from campus dining locations and off-campus restaurants to local hunger-fighting organizations.
Virginia Wesleyan University
2023 - Virginia Wesleyan University implements a composting program at the campus’ dining facility.
Chapman University
2022 - Increases awareness about post-consumer waste by collecting all the uneaten food from Randall Dining Commons for a lunch period and weighing it.
Clemson University
2022 - Organics Recovery program began as a student initiative and has expanded into a multi-departmental effort to capture organic waste from dining halls, sports arenas, academic buildings, and student housing.
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
2021 - Riverwalk Composting Pilot Program is a student‐led initiative focused on empowering residents at Riverwalk Apartments to compost their food waste.
Kent State University at Kent
2021 - Supports campus and community during times of food insecurity and diverts food waste during the Covid‐19 pandemic.
Lehigh University
2021 - Pilots a pre‐consumer composting program in one of their campus dining facilities.
University of California-Irvine
2021 - Focuses on the various stages of their food waste reduction program and the campus food waste to biofuels program in the post‐consumer process.
University of Richmond
2021 - Composts 54 tons of food related waste in the first five months of its compost pilot program.
The University of Texas at Dallas
2020 - A comprehensive analysis of actions to improve its food waste diversion program on campus.
Rider University
2020 - Working with Gourmet Dining, uses the RecycleMania competition as a platform to educate the campus community about food and water waste reduction as well as landfill diversion opportunities.
University of Connecticut
2020 - The Food to Fuel program provides students opportunities to create healthy and sustainable lives.
University of Albany
2018 - Reducing food waste on University at Albany Uptown College campus.
Knox College
2019 - Repurposing food waste to address food insecurity with the three-fold focus of promoting sustainability, social justice, and health in our community.
California State University Maritime Academy
2019 - Reporting Cal Maritime’s waste management program on converting used kitchen cooking oil to biodiesel fuel.
The Ohio State University
2019 - Measuring the impact of different education strategies on the level of contamination found in organic, post-consumer waste collected in a traditional, “cafeteria style” dining facility.
The University of Akron
2018 - Physical Facilities (PFOC) partnered with Aramark to reduce waste associated with meal preparation and to capture and divert post-consumer food scraps from the landfill.
Education and Awareness Case Studies
Agnes Scott College
2023 - Agnes Scott Increases campus awareness about best composting practices and increases composting in dining hall.
Appalachian State University
2023 - Appalachian State educates students on how to better sort their waste inside the dining hall in a fun and interactive way.
Emerson College
2023 - Emerson hosts an Upcycled Art Competition: A student event to turn “trash” into art.
SUNY Brockport
2023 - SUNY Brockport’s annual undergraduate research conference “Scholars Day” 2023, focuses on the theme of Sustainability.
Texas Woman’s University
2023 - Texas Woman's University hosts green room certification, a sustainability week in the fall, and more to engage the campus community in education and awareness.
Towson University
2023 - Towson's campaign focuses on educating the TU community on waste minimization and diversion efforts through the promotion of a new digital waste search directory.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
2023 - Project Zero Waste is a campaign meant to raise awareness of food waste in WPI’s main dining hall as well as catalog the waste produced.
Appalachian State University
2022 - Reduces contamination in dorm recycling and compost bins through targeted education, better signs and more convenient locations.
Central Michigan University
2022 - Museum Studies Program students disassembles old displays and recycles them into new exhibits at the University Museum, gaining valuable experience in sustainable practices.
Marywood University
2022 - Educates students, faculty, and staff on waste reduction and recycling during the spring 2022 semester.
Raritan Valley Community College
2022 - Records and analyzes the compost and recycling trends on campus and educates staff and students on proper composting and recycling habits
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
2022 - Engages campus stakeholders to create and implement SUNY’s Green Purchasing and Break Free From Plastic Policy and associated Green Purchasing Guide.
The University of Texas at Dallas
2022 - Leads an education and awareness campaign through a series of volunteer events that provide resources and engagement opportunities to students.
University of Pittsburgh
2022 - Hosts the Zero Waste Period program to advance menstrual equity on campus, sharing information about the physical and environmental health aspects of period products.
University of St. Thomas
2022 - Educates the campus public about the importance and benefits of reuse.
University of Washington
2022 - UW hosts a Trash Art Contest for the campus community members to raise awareness about waste impacts on the environment.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
2022 - Office of Sustainability Green Athletics team conducts waste audits at soccer games to assess the effectiveness of intervention methods on contamination rates.
Austin Peay State University
2021 - Partners with the local Green Certification Program to host an “Office Spring Cleaning” event with free secure document shredding, electronics recycling, and toner/ink recycling.
Central Michigan University
2021 - Measures the impact of educational, student‐made videos and student engagement content created during the Campus Race to Zero Waste competition
Central New Mexico Community College
2021 - Launches online campaigns to educate and engage students, staff, and the wider community on waste reduction and recycling.
College of William and Mary
2021 - Develops signs, posters, and videos promoting individual behaviors that mitigate waste stream issues.
Dallas College
2021 - Promotes zero waste with an online Zero Waste Education Hub, and modeled Zero Waste Practices in Arts, Construction and Public Health.
Drexel University
2021 - Dining services tackles the question - how can we support the need for student safety while minimizing the use of plastics?
Edmonds College
2021 - Hosts series promoting waste stream management education and provides resources regarding environmental justice and access to responsible waste management resources based on students' needs.
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
2021 - Riverwalk Composting Pilot Program is a student‐led initiative focused on empowering residents at Riverwalk Apartments to compost their food waste.
Macalester College
2021 - Educates incoming first years on the environmental justice implications of waste, promote refusing waste to halt the cycle of production and consumption, and teach basic logistics of waste sorting on campus.
Miami University
2021 - Raises awareness of zero waste, food waste, and recycling virtually on social media during the pandemic.
North Carolina State University
2021 - Hosts virtual focus groups during COVID, to gather information about the knowledge base on campus related to waste minimization and gain ideas on how to improve waste reduction and recycling efforts.
The University of Texas at Dallas
2021 - Builds a coalition of students and sustainability‐oriented student organizations to promote waste minimization practices and increase recycling rates during the CR2ZW competition season and beyond.
Towson University
2021 - Social media education and awareness campaigns focused on waste reduction and avoidance best practices, with an emphasis on food waste and wasted food.
University at Albany
2021 - Focuses on waste reduction and access to clean water through incentivizing reusable water bottles with the Fill It Forward app while also giving back to the global community.
University of Michigan
2021 - Engages staff and students working and studying both on campus and remotely using weekly feedback, themes, challenges, and activities throughout the competition to encourage waste reducing behaviors.
University of North Texas
2021 - Students were given pouches of biodegradable confetti composed of dried flowers as a plastic‐free alternative to help prevent plastic confetti litter on campus from graduation photo shoots.
University of South Florida
2021 - Students create a social marketing campaign to increase awareness of recycling and food waste reduction on campus.
University of Southern Mississippi
2021 - Focusing on educational outreach by hosting events to help engage the campus community on sustainable practices and issues.
University of Washington
2021 - Hosting a Trash Art Contest for the campus community members to raise awareness about waste impacts on the environment.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
2021 - Hosting an interactive seminar developed in collaboration with WPI’s Student Green Team to convey information and awareness on waste and recycling.
Xavier University in Louisiana
2021 - Launching a “Digital Recycling Awareness” campaign, due to COVID‐19 in‐person restrictions on campus, on the concept of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” to influence on and off campus recycling.
Xavier University of Louisiana
2020 - Engaging key campus stakeholders to ensure success for a first-time participation in the RecycleMania competition.
Western Kentucky University
2020 - Greeks Go Green experiments with and utilizes various techniques to raise awareness for sustainability and incentivize sustainable behaviors among the campus’s Greek community.
Virginia Wesleyan University
2020 - Hosting a residence hall competition, which includes educational programming, and implementation of green-colored bags for recycling, increases campus awareness and participation in recycling.
University of Southern California
2020 - Rolling out a pilot Zero Waste Green Game for a NCAA Men’s Basketball Game at its Galen Center venue as an expansion of the season-long Zero Waste (ZW) Initiative and Green Game.
University of North Texas
2020 - Launching an education and awareness campaign called “Eight R’s of Reducing Waste” which featured “Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Repurpose, and Recycle” as themes.
Temple University
2020 - Engaging in unique partnership for unprecedented access to affordable triple-bottom, zero-waste personal care products.
Miami University
2020 - Engaging students living in residential halls in the Race to Zero Waste competition.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
2020 - Engaging the campus in an education and awareness campaign that taught participants to correctly sort commonly disposed of items into recycling, compost, or trash.
Endicott College
2020 - Wall mural in the dining hall helps educate and improve food waste diversion across campus.
Central New Mexico Community College
2020 - Conducts study to determine whether new waste and recycling educational signage works to divert waste from the landfill and/or to reduce contamination.
Capital University
2020 - Raising awareness on environmental sustainability and reduced waste from single-use disposable coffee cups through an incentivized reusable coffee cup sale.
The Ohio State University
2020 - Implementing a sustainability and zero waste certification training for facilities operations workers including custodial, maintenance, landscaping, and housekeeping staff.
Bard College
2019 - Teaching students to recycle properly while also demonstrating how to put on a carnival without creating any waste, and giving out reusable prizes
Bard College
2019 - Spreading awareness of items sold on campus that seem recyclable but are not, and give an example as to how they can be repurposed.
Bard College
2019 - Teaching students that water provided on campus from the tap and the filter are safe and tasty to drink. They do not need to use single use water bottles.
California State University, Northridge
2019 - CSU Northridge's goal is to educate students, faculty, & staff on recycling efforts. We would like to emphasize proper waste procedures along with waste minimization.
Central New Mexico Community College
2019 - Educational outreach campaign and recycling bin reorganization. Omitted the 2018 pre-RecycleMania custodial training and added a Recycling Audit to further understand diversion rates.
San Diego State University
2019 - Recycling is Beautiful (RiB) is an awareness campaign and art project where students create artwork that is printed and wrapped around our concrete recycling bins.
St. Louis College of Pharmacy
2019 - Education and awareness was practiced and assessed in initiating recycling on campus based on outreach and marketing strategies between the student body, administration, and faculty.
Towson University
2019 - Towson's inaugural Fix It Fair’s focus was to encourage students to be mindful consumers in a throwaway society—to fix more and waste less.
Central New Mexico Community College
2018 - Strategic educational outreach targeting students, staff and faculty, and associated Recycling bin reorganization on Main campus.
University of Virginia
2018 - Educate UVA community about importance of reducing all food-associated waste by avoiding single-use plastics, composting uneaten food, and promoting use of reusable bags and containers.
Bard College
2018 - Our office did weekly tabling in our campus center to educate our students about waste on campus and give them resources to reduce their waste.
Nova Southeastern University
2018 - The Sustainability Walk and Ride targeted two areas of sustainability: sustainable forms of transportation and reusable water bottles to reduce plastic waste.
Towson University
2018 - Towson University’s Zero Waste Campaign focused on encouraging the use of reusable items by students and the implementation of Zero Waste Events on campus.
Rider University
2018 - Using weekly themes and events, we used the RecycleMania competition as a platform to educate the campus community about waste minimization and landfill diversion opportunities.
Nova Southeastern University
2018 - Educating students of the sustainability and food waste-reduction benefits provided when buying fresh produce from local farms.
University of Albany
2018 - The focus of our 2018 RecycleMania campaign was student engagement and marketing outreach.
University of Texas at Austin
2018 - Partnership between UT-Austin leadership skills development program and Resource Recovery to engage on-campus residents in interactive zero waste workshops and expand impact through outreach video.