Recycling, Compost & Waste

The University of Washington’s Seattle campus won the 2017 PAC-12 Grand Champion award during RecycleMania, a national collegiate waste diversion tournament. The 786 metric tons of CO2 that UW kept out of the landfill is equivalent to the total amount of energy consumption of 68 households, or removing 154 cars off the road.

The student organization EcoReps supported UW Recycling’s efforts in generating event awareness on campus this year. 

Is your office getting ready for spring cleaning? There are plenty of ways to ensure that your annual cleanup is both efficient and sustainable! With Earth Day coming up, use the following tips from UW Recycling to properly dispose of your used office supplies.

The two-month RecycleMania competition finished with the end of March, but the numbers are still being tallied. So far, the results are in through the first six weeks of the competition, and the University of Washington is holding a big lead among all Pac-12 schools. The Seattle campus is pacing the conference, but UW Bothell has been doing even better in terms of overall recycling rate. 

At the five-week mark of RecycleMania, the University of Washington continues to lead the Pac-12 in the recycling competition.

The UW's Seattle campus is well ahead of the other Pac-12 schools and is in 31st place out of the 178 schools competing. UW Bothell is doing even better, in 26th place. According to RecycleMania, UW Seattle has recycled more than four pounds of material for every person on campus - a total of nearly 500,000 pounds recycled. 

One month of RecycleMania numbers are in, and the University of Washington continues to lead the Pac-12 by a wide margin.

Halfway through the eight-week competition, UW's Seattle campus has a recycling rate of 54.66 percent. The closest Pac-12 school is Stanford, at just over 43 percent. UW's Seattle campus is 29th overall among the 172 schools participating, and UW Bothell is just ahead in 27th place.

After two weeks of the nation-wide RecycleMania competition, UW Seattle remains in the lead among all Pac-12 schools, and is 25th overall. RecycleMania is a friendly tournament where national college campuses compete during the course of eight weeks to see which can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste.

The first week of RecycleMania is completed, and the results are in. After one week, UW Seattle is in 21st place among all 115 schools in the competition, with UW Bothell one spot behind. RecycleMania is a friendly tournament where national college campuses compete during the course of eight weeks to see which can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste. 

National Collegiate Recycling Competition Returns to the UW Seattle Campus

For the fifth year, the University of Washington is competing in RecycleMania — a friendly tournament where national college campuses compete during the course of eight weeks to see which can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste. The UW will take on nationwide universities including Pac-12 rivals Arizona State University, Stanford, University of California Berkeley, University of Oregon and Washington State University.

As a freshman living on West Campus, when Nola Peshkin stopped by District Market to pick up food or other items she was often surprised by the behavior of her fellow shoppers.

"Growing up my family was really adamant about always bringing reusable bags to the grocery store, but when I came to UW I was just really surprised and disappointed in the number of people who would use paper bags when it didn't seem necessary," Peshkin said.

The Washington State Recycling Association has student scholarships to their annual conference available to undergraduate and graduate students in Washington. This is an opportunity for students to network with leading industry professionals, expand their knowledge of recycling and waste reduction, and prepare themselves for a career in a rewarding and innovative field.