From Jan. 29 to March 25, a competition dedicated to encouraging North American colleges and universities to reduce and eliminate waste will take place. Credit: Meghan Beery | Lantern Reporter
Ohio State is competing to become a zero waste champion.
The Campus Race to Zero Waste — a competition dedicated to encouraging North American colleges and universities to reduce and eliminate waste — began Jan. 29 and will continue until March 25, according to the organization’s website. Ohio State’s staff hope this competition can help the university reach its goal to be zero waste by 2025.
According to a release from Facilities Operations and Development, the competition tracks campuses’ landfill diversion rates — the percentage of waste not sent to landfills — and encourages students, faculty and staff to help by “recycling more, recycling right and composting.”
“If the faculty, staff and students were to put recyclables in the correct bin, Ohio State could increase its landfill diversion rate by 27 percent this year,” Molly Kathleen, zero waste coordinator in Facilities Operations and Development, said.
The 2023 competition includes 169 campuses, according to the Campus Race for Zero Waste website, with 41 states, the District of Columbia and two Canadian provinces participating, Kathleen said.
Kathleen said Ohio State has participated in the competition — formerly known as RecycleMania — since 2003. The university has regularly increased its landfill diversion rate since 2015, she said.
“It’s increased steadily up to 40 percent for [fiscal year 2022], which was an actual record high for the university,” Kathleen said.
Mary Leciejewski, zero waste manager in Facilities Operations and Development, said 40 percent is an above-average rate for an Ohio State-sized community.
“A city or a university typically plateaus around 32 percent,” Leciejewski said.
Ohio State’s zero waste goal calls for a 90 percent landfill diversion rate by 2025, and Kathleen said the yearly competition contributes to meeting that objective.
“The more our campus community actively participates with the recycling and composting programs we have, the faster we can achieve the goal,” Kathleen said.
Kathleen said Ohio State community members can use programs — such as on- and off-campus composting and recycling — to help Ohio State reach its goal of becoming a zero waste champion.
“Learn about the recycling and composting programs that are available on campus,” Kathleen said. “That means learning what is acceptable and what’s not acceptable in those programs, and just using the bins daily that are already in the buildings.”
Kathleen said other initiatives that help to reduce waste include replacing paper towel dispensers with hand dryers, adding automated carts to transport recyclables in the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, offering free beverage refills with reusable cups at Coca-Cola Freestyle machines and developing educational sustainability modules for operations staff.
“We are really hoping that all of these new programs will just continue to push that number forward,” Kathleen said.
