University VS University!
Old Dominion University is competing in Campus Race to Zero Waste (formerly RecycleMania): the national recycling and waste reduction competition where colleges across North America are ranked on their recycling, trash and food organics reduction efforts. The competition runs Jan. 31-March 27. Last year, we competed against more than 300 colleges and universities.
ODU utilizes the single-stream recycling method, meaning all recyclable plastic bottles, jugs, dairy containers, cardboard, aluminum cans, paper, juice cartons and glass are placed into a recycling bin and all other trash in a separate trash bin. For more information on proper recycling, please view Acceptable Materials.
The University also recycles specialized items, including batteries, electronics, fluorescent light bulbs, scrap metal, compostable yard waste and construction debris.
How does it work?
The Campus Race to Zero Waste competition is broken up into several different categories. ODU is participating in: Total Diversion. The University's Recycling Management team works with staff and the recycling vendors to keep track of the weight of all recyclables.
Every spring ODU participates in this intercollegiate recycling competition. Campus Race to Zero Waste (formerly RecycleMania) is a friendly competition among college and university recycling programs in North America and Canada and a benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities.
Over a 10-week period, schools report recycling and trash data which are then ranked according to who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate. With each week's reports and rankings, participating schools watch how their results fluctuate against other schools and use this to rally their campus communities to reduce and recycle more.
For more information about this program, check out https://recyclemania.org/