Indiana U Purdue U Indianapolis Introduces Office Recycling Program

Attempting to increase the campus' waste diversion rate, the new pilot program is a combination of a recycle and waste bin at each employee's desk in one of the campus' newest buildings.

Colorado State U Surplus Diverts 18 Tons of Move-Out Material

The university's Surplus Department and Housing and Dining Services diverted over 18 tons of reusable items this year through the Leave it Behind program, which netted just over $7,000 to fund eight students in the Eco Leaders Peer Education Program who raise sustainability awareness in the dorms.

31 Schools Receive Recycling Bin Grants

Delivered by the Cola-Cola Foundation and Keep America Beautiful, the 31 college and university recipients are scattered throughout 18 states.

Elon U Waste Diversion Efforts Benefit Community Partners

The university's annual campaign coordinated by the Office of Sustainability diverted thousands of usable furnishings and food from landfills this spring and into the coffers of regional charities that help people in need.

Idaho State U Receives 50 Recycling Bins

As part of a national recycling grant from Keep America Beautiful and The Coca-Cola Foundation, the new bins will be placed around six buildings on campus. The university was chosen by Keep America Beautiful based on the extent of its need, recycling experience, and its ability to sustain the program in the future.

Eastern Washington U Receives 2015 Higher Education Recycler of the Year award

The university was recently honored as the 2015 Higher Education Recycler of the Year by the Washington State Recycling Association for dedication toward strengthening and expanding recycling and waste prevention practices.

Lehigh U Raises Record Amount Through End of Year Sale

A small group of faculty, staff, students and administrators managed to raise over $19,000 through this year's sale of unwanted and discarded goods from students, faculty and staff.

Ohio State U Students Create Recycling App

Funded by an Alcoa Foundation grant of $100,000, the new Android app, RecycleNow, helps communities maximize their recycling efforts by providing municipalities the ability to explore the economic, environmental and social impact of potential changes to their existing recycling programs.

Northern Arizona U Transforms Trash Cans Into Planters

As a result of placing 130 Big Belly receptacles throughout campus, old trash bins were creatively repurposed into flower planters for the summer.

Northwestern U Evaluates Switching to Single Stream Recycling

The university decided to maintain a dual-stream recycling system, one collection for paper and cardboard, and the other for cans, glass and plastic, ensuring that recycling happens at the highest level possible to maximize resource reuse and to keep a lower rate of contamination.

U South Carolina Collects 19 Tons During Move Out

This year’s Give It Up For Good yard sale collected 19 tons of donations from university students, faculty and staff and raised over $13,900 for the Central South Carolina Habitat for Humanity, beating last year’s total of $9,800. The university will partner with the organization to build or rehab a house this fall with raised funds.

Arizona State U Boosts Waste Diversion Rate With Blue Bags

Blue bags capture items including dry cell batteries, shiny plastic wrappers and bags, single-use coffee pods, and small e-waste not currently recyclable as part of the university's current blue bin commingled recycling program. Blue bags are available free of charge to offices and departments across the Tempe campus.

Roosevelt U Student Develops Phone App to Encourage Recycling

As part of a sustainability studies program course, honors student Dusan Koleno created the Google Play app, Recycle Tracker, to enable users at home and office to keep track of what and how much they are recycling with comparisons, including pie and bar charts, that can be viewed by weekly, monthly or annual usage.

Morehead State U to Hold Charity Donation Event

In an effort to reduce end-of-year waste, Chuck it for Charity is a campus move out donation campaign where Goodwill of Kentucky provides donation bins in several locations on campus so that students can donate gently used clothing, shoes, small appliances, decor, books and school supplies, and miscellaneous household goods.

Eastern Washington U Celebrates Earth Day with Recycling Center Ribbon Cutting

The new 6,964 square foot facility supports the university's ongoing commitment to sustainability and was designed to efficiently process the 331 tons of material handled each year. A new materials compactor/baler and electronic truck scale was installed. The center is also the new home for EWU Surplus Sales, which promotes the re-use of items no longer needed by the university.

U Maryland Diverts 89 Percent of Waste from Landfills

The university's Facilities Management Solid Waste and Recycling Unit recently confirmed the university has achieved an 89 percent institutional diversion rate in 2014. The rate increased by more than 10 percent from 2013. The institutional diversion rate reflects all materials the university diverted from landfills, including construction and demolition waste.

Central New Mexico CC Produces Film About Mt. Trashmore & RecycleMania

The college's Media Production team produced a short film highlighting “Mount Trashmore,” the key event during RecycleMania. The event served as an educational activity for students participating in Campus as a Living Lab and Service Learning projects while also emphasizing the college's relationships with community partners.

U Maryland Dining Services Procures Environmentally Friendly Cups

As part of its sustainability efforts, Dining Services recently replaced its blue Pepsi cups in the North Campus and South Campus dining halls with fully compostable cups this semester.

Bentley U Begins Composting Pre-Consumer Food Waste

Reducing food waste is the motivation for dining services' new process that captures food scraps from the food preparation process.

Boston U Increases Recycling Rate

The newly installed dual-stream recycling system on every floor of one of the campus' largest residence halls was the result of the university's Student Government Department of Environmental Affairs goal to increase access and convenience.

U Maryland Student Creates Recycling Video

The new promotional video that encourages and educates about recycling was created on behalf of a contest, which won first place.

Fitchburg State U Removes Drinking Straw Option

(U.S.): In an attempt to improve waste reduction, recycling and composting, the university removed the straws, which are hard to spot when conducting post-consumer, dish room garbage separation.

U Malaya Initiates Zero Waste Campaign

(Malaysia): The new campaign, started by students driven by the desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from methane, includes food and garden waste, paper, plastics, metals, textiles, electronics and wood and includes a special focus on reducing organic material, which accounts for over 50 percent of discarded material.

U Sunshine Coast Installs Water Bottle Refilling Stations

(Australia): Aligning with the university's goal to reduce waste and provide alternative choices, three new refilling vending machines have been installed that dispense chilled, filtered water or sparkling water at a low cost to users, in addition to 18 bottle refill stations.

U Sydney Introduces Centralized Recycling Stations

(Australia): Hoping to increase recycling rates and reduce the use of plastic bin liners across campus, the new two-bin system allows for mixed recyclables, plastic, glass, cans and paper, and general waste.

Virginia Tech Eliminates Foam To-Go Containers

(U.S.): With the high number of complaints about the university's use of foam containers, the university recently transitioned to compostable to-go containers available in four different sizes.

U Arkansas Launches Zero Waste Resource

The university's Office of Sustainability has developed a process for event planners to follow to achieve event landfill diversion rates of 90 percent or more. The sustainability office offers containers, scales and other materials for free check out in addition to interns for consultation.

Utah State U Installs Composting System

Contributing to the university's greenhouse gas reduction targets, the new Earth Flow compost unit handles approximately 25 tons annually of landscape waste and post-consumer food from the university. Each batch takes roughly three weeks to create usable landscaping material.

Clark U Expands Composting Capacity

Clark Composts, a student group dedicated to education and expansion of campus composting, assisted in expanding intake of compostable material by equipping the library with bins. The student group will focus next on instituting composting in the newest residence hall and in academic departments.

U Northern British Columbia Reduces Food Waste

Since October 2014, more than 1,000 pounds of food have been provided to local charities from the university's Food Recovery Project that collects and redistributes the surplus food from a new dining hall.

Florida State U Begins Food Recovery Network Chapter

The new student chapter recovers leftover pre-made food from various locations across campus, including home football games and soon, baseball games, and delivers it to various partner agencies around the city, where it is later distributed to people living in shelters or those who are in need.

George Washington U Recycles Used Cooking Oil

The university recently partnered with a biofuels company that collects used cooking oil from campus dining facilities and recycles it into biodiesel.

Florida A&M U Opens Recycling Center

The university's new recycling center will manage and encourage the collection, sorting and processing of recyclables, such as paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and aluminum cans. The new center will also house a cardboard bailer and provide workspace for student interns and volunteers to assist with the recycling program.

U California Santa Cruz Coordinates First Campus Clean-Up Day

Organized by the university's Student Union Assembly and the Sustainability Office, the event aims to motivate campus users to properly dispose of waste and encourages campus stewardship.

392 Colleges Compete in RecycleMania Tournament

This year's competition to encourage waste reduction and recycling on higher education campuses features participation from 48 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. New this year, students can post digital messages and selfies that document their reduction efforts in order to earn points.

Chicago State U Implements Campus Recycling

(U.S.): As part of the university's Go Green initiative, buildings now have paper, plastic and aluminum recycling bins available throughout campus. This is the first campus-wide recycling plan implemented at the university in over a decade.

College of Applied Sciences Promotes Plastic Recycling

(Oman): Students and staff of the college collected 661 pounds of plastic for recycling as part of a new program to reduce total amount of waste.

Knox College Completes Waste Free Move

(U.S.): Over the most recent winter break, 70 staff and faculty moved, including the contents of five storage rooms, to a newly renovated building without renting a dumpster or increasing its regular trash pickup schedule.

St. Edward's U Reuses Staff Uniforms

(U.S.): Expecting to replace worn out staff uniforms once or twice per year, the university partnered with a locally-owned and operated textile recycling company to repurpose them into dust rags.

West Liberty U Adds 400 Recycling Bins

(U.S.): After past surveys revealed that 84 percent of the campus community would recycle if it was more convenient, the university, aided by funding from West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, added bins to common areas, classrooms and offices.

U Tennessee Knoxville Opens Public Recycling Drop Off Site

The newly designated site for faculty, staff and students accepts paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, steel and aluminum cans, electronic waste, printer cartridges, batteries and scrap metal. In addition to this new site, the university's recycling program is providing at least one dumpster at all residence halls.

Vanderbilt U Extends Recycling to Glass

Spurred by students, the university's Sustainability and Environmental Management Office has recently expanded access to glass recycling to six new campus locations and converted bins designated as event-only to public bins.

2014 GameDay Recycling Challenge Spotlights Leaders

The 2014 results highlight those institutions with the highest total waste diversion rate, with Humboldt State University at the top of the leader board at 86.05 percent, and highest total recyclable material in pounds, Clemson University at the top with 60,724 pounds recycled. The GameDay Recycling Challenge is a friendly competition for colleges and universities to promote waste reduction at their football games. During the challenge, colleges and universities implement waste reduction programs during home football games, track and report the data.

U California Santa Cruz Library Transitions to Zero Waste

As part of a collaborative pilot program between university Grounds, the Sustainability Office, Custodial Services and the library, more than 40 four-stream waste stations will be set up throughout McHenry Library for trash, paper, contained recyclables and compostable waste, and desk-side bins have been modified to accept compostable material.

Northwestern U Finds New Life for Waste Cooking Oil

The university received its first batch of biodiesel fuel, 300 gallons that is expected to last about 3 weeks, from dining hall cooking oil waste processed into fuel for shuttle buses.

SUNY Oneonta Opens Thrift Shop

At the new secondhand store items include clothing, shoes, accessories and books, and has a pay what you will policy with $3 as the suggested price for most items.

U Maryland to Implement Composting in Residence Halls

After the Student Government Association and the Residence Hall Association passed resolutions in support, starting in the spring, students in some dorms will be able to use composting bins as part of an pilot initiative to decrease the university’s environmental impact.

Inside Higher Ed: Trashing Morale?

(U.S.): West Virginia University recently switched to single stream recycling. Along with this change, the institution recently announced that faculty members must begin taking out their own garbage and recyclables to central collection stations in order to encourage recycling. Custodial staff will no longer empty individual office trash and recycling bins, which creates higher efficiencies. Overall the change has been received well, but there are some faculty who object to the manner in which the university carried out the change.

Princeton U Residence Halls Convert to Mixed Recycling System

(U.S.): Following the successful launch of mixed recycling in two colleges in spring 2014, students in all residence halls can now collect paper, cardboard, cans and bottles into one bin.

San Diego State U Pairs Trash and Recycling Bins

(U.S.): In an effort to make recycling easier on campus, the recycling department is co-locating trash and recycling bins around campus and re-labeling all the bins to create consistent messaging.