2025 update
With our current five-year Sustainability Action Plan concluding in 2024-2025, we are set to begin the next phase of our sustainability efforts. The University will develop a new plan that will guide us towards our 2050 sustainability objectives. This plan will address the needs of our tri-campus community and involve a range of partners in its creation.
Stay informed about progress, learn about the planning process, and discover ways to get involved on the Sustainability Action Plan update page.
10% LESS SOLID WASTE BY 2025
Everything we throw away is something that we don’t need. That may seem self-evident, but combined with life-cycle thinking it means an opportunity to reduce manufacturing emissions, energy consumption, transportation, and even raw materials extraction associated with whatever object we didn’t need. “Reduce, reuse, recycle” remains a powerful hierarchy of solid waste management, but there are even more details of product and materials management, economics, and urban ecology that can receive both our research attention and our operational attention.
Status updates
FY2024 progress
Target actions for FY24
- Divert compostable waste from recycling and landfill
- Reduce single-use disposable items
Divert compostable waste from recycling and landfill
In Fiscal Year 2024, UW Recycling updated its waste infrastructure to support single-stream recycling in eight buildings across the Seattle campus. This included strategic placement of compost bins and improved signage in common areas where food is regularly consumed or prepared.
To address the high contamination rates occurring in residence halls, UW Recycling and Housing & Food Services distributed "Recycle Right" door hangers with waste sorting guidance to every residence hall, apartment, and family housing unit at the beginning of the 2024 Fall quarter. Additionally, waste sorting training was provided to Resident Advisors (RAs) to help them share this information with residents on their floors. UW Recycling also sent notifications to custodial, dining and community managers, providing information and a new social media toolkit to address recycling contamination.
UW Recycling nearly doubled its number of outreach events on the Seattle campus in fiscal year 2024, increasing from 51 to 99. More than 5,000 students, staff, faculty, and community members were engaged and educated over the year at events and tours such as:
- Recology Recycling Materials Recover Tour
- Cedar Grove’s Composting Facilities Tour
- Residence Hall Trash Sort
- Tailgate recycling
- Dining Hall “Get Caught Green Handed” initiative
- Orientation leader training
- Welcome Day in-person sessions with new UW employees
Additionally, nearly 400 staff and faculty completed the Intro to Recycling training course, which is now required for all Facilities staff and Housing and Food Services staff. Roughly 600 students also completed the online Waste 101 course.
Over the past year, UW Medicine has strengthened its commitment to sustainability by establishing a new Sustainability Committee and creating a dedicated website. Additionally, funding was approved for FY25 to hire two new Sustainability Managers - one for UWMC-Montlake and another for UWMC-Northwest.
Reduce single-use disposable items
The University of Washington has taken significant steps to reduce single-use disposable items across campus. This includes Housing & Food Services’ expansion of the Ozzi program, which now offers on-demand reusable containers to all meal plan holders. Additionally, a 50-cent charge has been added for single-use containers to encourage the use of reusables. Efforts to minimize food waste have also been implemented through staff training and pre-planning to prevent over-ordering. HFS also switched to durable dishware for dine-in options at dining halls.
Over the past year, Master of Health Administration capstone students partnered with UW Medicine to analyze and propose key sustainability projects. One initiative they identified focused on the diversion of surgical blue wrap waste from landfills. The students' research revealed that in 2023, UWMC generated over 20 metric tons of surgical blue wrap waste. This waste contributed to 27.68 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (mtCO2e) in greenhouse gas emissions and incurred disposal costs of $3,408. To address this issue, the students proposed several solutions:
Implementing in-house baling and recycling, similar to the system used at Harborview Medical Center
Establishing partnerships with vendors for more efficient waste management
Introducing sterilization boxes as an alternative, potentially eliminating the need for blue wrap entirely
The students determined that investing in sterilization boxes at UWMC would be a more advantageous solution, both environmentally and economically, compared to purchasing a baler for blue wrap recycling.
UW Bothell partnered with residential life staff to develop a green move out program, Give & Go, which educates student residents about the positive aspects of waste diversion. Summit Hall residents donated items they didn’t need, instead of disposing into dumpsters or hauling to large donation centers. UW Bothell collected more than 800 pounds of supplies which will go back to the campus community in the fall for no cost.
Additionally, UW Bothell installed sonar technology in dumpsters to track waste diversion and collection data. This data has already helped in the reduction of pick-ups, which results in cost savings and lower emissions from heavy duty vehicle miles traveled.